EX 


THE  HIGHER  POWERS 
OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 


BY 


RALPH    WALDO    TRINE 


NEW    YORK 

DODGE    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

EIGHTH    AVENUE 

33d  Street  34th  Street 


Copyright,  1917 
BY   RALPH   WAI.DO   THINK 


FOREWORD 

We  are  all  dwellers  in  two  kingdoms, 
the  inner  kingdom,  the  kingdom  of  the  mind 
and  spirit,  and  the  outer  kingdom,  that  of  the 
body  and  the  physical  universe  about  us.  In 
the  former,  the  kingdom  of  the  unseen,  lie 
the  silent,  subtle  forces  that  are  continually 
determining,  and  with  exact  precision,  the 
conditions  of  the  latter. 

To  strike  the  right  balance  in  life  is  one  of 
the  supreme  essentials  of  all  successful  living. 
We  must  work,  for  we  must  have  bread.  We 
require  other  things  than  bread.  They  are 
not  only  valuable,  comfortable,  but  necessary. 
It  is  a  dumb,  stolid  being,  however,  who  does 
not  realize  that  life  consists  of  more  than 
these.  They  spell  mere  existence,  not  abun- 
dance, fullness  of  life. 

We  can  become  so  absorbed  in  making  a 
living  that  we  have  no  time  for  Ih-ing.  To  be 
capable  and  efficient  in  one's  work  is  a  splendid 
thing;  but  efficiency  can  be  made  a  great 
mechanical  device  that  robs  life  of  far  more 
than  it  returns  it.  A  nation  can  become  so 
possessed,  and  even  obsessed,  with  the  idea  of 

3 


16S--M54 


4  FOREWORD 

power  and  grandeur  through  efficiency  and 
organisation,  that  it  becomes  a  great  machine 
and  robs  its  people  of  the  finer  fruits  of  life 
that  spring  from  a  wisely  subordinated  and 
co-ordinated  individuality.  Here  again  it  is 
the  wise  balance  that  determines  all. 

Our  prevailing  thoughts  and  emotions  de- 
termine, and  with  absolute  accuracy,  the  pre- 
vailing conditions  of  our  outward,  material  life, 
and  likewise  the  prevailing  conditions  of  our 
bodily  life.  Would  we  have  any  conditions 
different  in  the  latter  we  must  then  make  the 
necessary  changes  in  the  former.  The  silent, 
subtle  forces  of  mind  and  spirit,  ceaselessly 
at  work,  are  continually  moulding  these  out- 
ward and  these  bodily  conditions. 

He  makes  a  fundamental  error  who  thinks 
that  these  are  mere  sentimental  things  in  life, 
vague  and  intangible.  They  are,  as  great  num- 
bers are  now  realising,  the  great  and  elemental 
things  in  life,  the  only  things  that  in  the  end 
really  count.  The  normal  man  or  woman  can 
never  find  real  and  abiding  satisfaction  in  the 
mere  possessions,  the  mere  accessories  of  life. 
There  is  an  eternal  something  within  that 
forbids  it.  That  is  the  reason  why,  of  late 
years,  so  many  of  our  big  men  of  affairs,  so 
many  in  various  public  walks  in  life,  likewise 
many  women  of  splendid  equipment  and  with 
large  possessions,  have  been  and  are  turning 


FOREWORD  5 

so  eagerly  to  the  very  things  we  are  consider- 
ing. To  be  a  mere  huckster,  many  of  our  big 
men  are  finding,  cannot  bring  satisfaction,  even 
though  his  operations  run  into  millions  in  the 
year. 

And  happy  is  the  young  man  or  the  young 
woman  who,  while  the  bulk  of  life  still  lies 
ahead,  realises  that  it  is  the  things  of  the 
mind  and  the  spirit — the  fundamental  things 
in  life — that  really  count;  that  here  lie  the 
forces  that  are  to  be  understood  and  to  be 
used  in  moulding  the  every-day  conditions 
and  affairs  of  life ;  that  the  springs  of  life  are 
all  from  within,  that  as  is  the  inner  so  always 
and  inevitably  will  be  the  outer. 

To  present  certain  facts  that  may  be  con- 
ducive to  the  realisation  of  this  more  abun- 
dant life  is  the  author's  purpose  and  plan. 

R.  W.  T. 

Sunnybrat  Farm, 

Crolon-on- Hudson, 

Neia  York- 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.    The  Silent,  Subtle  Building  Forces  of 

Mind  and  Spirit 9 

II.     Soul,    Mind,    Body — The    Subconscious 

Mind  That  Interrelates  Them    .       .       19 

III.  The  Way  Mind  Through  the  Subcon- 

scious Mind  Builds  Body  37 

IV.  The  Powerful  Aid  of  the  Mind  in  Re- 

building   Body — How    Body    Helps 

Mind 50 

V.    Thought  as  a  Force  in  Daily  Living  .       63 
VI.    Jesus    the    Supreme    Exponent    of    the 
Inner  Forces  and  Powers:  His  Peo- 
ple's Religion  and  Their  Condition  .       76 
VII.    The  Divine  Rule  in  the  Mind  and  Heart: 
The    Unessentials    We     Drop— The 

Spirit   Abides 89 

VIII.    If  We  Seek  the  Essence  of  His  Revela- 
tion, and  the  Purpose  of  His  Life     .     113 
IX.    His  Purpose  of  Lifting  Up,  Energising, 
Beautifying,    and    Saving    the    Entire 
Life:  The  Saving  of  the  Soul  is  Sec- 
ondary; but  Follows        ....     140 
X.     Some  Methods  of  Attainment  .  •     .      .     152 
XI.     Some  Methods  of  Expression  .       .       .     173 

XII.    The  World  War— Its  Meaning  and  Its 

Lessons  for  Us 191 

XIII.    Our     Sole     Agency     of     International 

Peace,  and  International  Concord    .     215 
7 


THE    HIGHER   POWERS 
OF 

MIND    AND    SPIRIT 


THE  SILENT,  SUBTLE  BUILDING  FORCES 
OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

There  are  moments  in  the  lives  of  all  of  us 
when  we  catch  glimpses  of  a  life— our  life — 
that  is  infinitely  beyond  the  life  we  are  now 
living.  We  realise  that  we  are  living  below 
our  possibilities.  We  long  fpr  the  realisation 
of  the  life  that  we  feel  should  be. 

Instinctively  we  perceive  that  there  are 
within  us  powers  and  forces  that  we  are  mak- 
ing but  inadequate  use  of,  and  others  that 
we  are  scarcely  using  at  all.  Practical  meta- 
physics, a  more  simplified  and  concrete  psy- 
chology, well-known  laws  of  mental  and 
spiritual  science,  confirm  us  in  this  conclusion. 

Our  own  William  James,  he  who  so  splen- 
didly related  psychology,  philosophy,  and  even 
religion,  to  life  in  a  supreme  degree,  honoured 
his  calling  and  did  a  tremendous  service  for  all 
9 


io    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

mankind,  when  he  so  clearly  developed  the 
fact  that  we  have  within  us  powers  and  forces 
that  we  are  making  all  too  little  use  of — that 
we  have  within  us  great  reservoirs  of  power 
that  we  have  as  yet  scarcely  tapped. 

The  men  and  the  women  who  are  awake  to 
these  inner  helps — these  directing,  moulding, 
and  sustaining  powers  and  forces  that  belong 
to  the  realm  of  mind  and  spirit — are  never  to  be 
found  among  those  who  ask:  Is  life  worth 
the  living?  For  them  life  has  been  multiplied 
two,  ten,  a  hundred  fold. 

It  is  not  ordinarily  because  we  are  not  in- 
terested in  these  things,  for  instinctively  we 
feel  them  of  value;  and  furthermore  our 
observations  and  experiences  confirm  us  in 
this  thought.  The  pressing  cares  of  the  every- 
day life — in  the  great  bulk  of  cases,  the  bread 
and  butter  problem  of  life,  which  is  after  all 
the  problem  of  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hun- 
dred— all  seem  to  conspire  to  keep  us  from  giv- 
ing the  time  and  attention  to  them  that  we 
feel  we  should  give  them.  But  we  lose  thereby 
tremendous  helps  to  the  daily  living. 

Through  the  body  and  its  avenues  of  sense, 
we  are  intimately  related  to  the  physical  uni- 
verse about  us.  Through  the  soul  and  spirit 
we  are  related  to  the  Infinite  Power  that  is 
the  animating,  the  sustaining  force — the  Life 
Force — of  all  objective  material  forms.  It  is 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    n 

through  the  medium  of  the  mind  that  we  are 
able  consciously  to  relate  the  two.  Through 
it  we  are  able  to  realise  the  laws  that  underlie 
the  workings  of  the  spirit;  and  to  open  our- 
selves that  they  may  become  the  dominating 
forces  of  our  lives. 

There  is  a  divine  current  that  will  bear  us 
with  peace  and  safety  on  its  bosom  if  we  are 
wise  and  diligent  enough  to  find  it  and  go 
with  it.  Battling  against  tho  current  is  always 
hard  and  uncertain.  Going  with  the  current 
lightens  the  labours  of  the  journey.  Instead 
of  being  continually  uncertain  and  even  ex- 
hausted in  the  mere  efforts  of  getting  through, 
we  have  time  for  the  enjoyments  along  the 
way,  as  well  as  the  ability  to  call  a  word  of 
cheer  or  to  lend  a  hand  to  the  neighbour,  also 
on  the  way. 

The  natural,  normal  life  is  by  a  law  divine 
under  the  guidance  of  the  spirit.  It  is  only 
when  we  fail  to  seek  and  to  follow  this  guid- 
ance, or  when  we  deliberately  take  ourselves 
from  under  its  influence,  that  uncertainties 
arise,  legitimate  longings  go  unfulfilled,  and 
that  violated  laws  bring  their  penalties. 

It  is  well  that  we  remember  always  that 
violated  law  carries  with  it  its  own  penalty. 
The  Supreme  Intelligence— God,  if  you  please 
— does  not  punish.  He  works  through  the 
channel  of  great  immutable  systems  of  law. 


12    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

It  is  ours  to  find  these  laws.  That  is  what 
mind,  intelligence,  is  for.  Knowing  them  we 
can  then  obey  them  and  reap  the  beneficent 
results  that  are  always  a  part  of  their  ful- 
filment; knowingly  or  unknowingly,  inten- 
tionally or  unintentionally,  we  can  fail  to 
observe  them,  we  can  violate  them,  and  suffer 
the  results,  or  even  be  broken  by  them. 

Life  is  not  so  complex  if  we  do  not  so  con- 
tinually persist  in  making  it  so.  Supreme  In- 
telligence, creative  Power  works  only  through 
law.  Science  and  religion  are  but  different  ap- 
proaches to  our  understanding  of  the  law. 
When  both  are  real,  they  supplement  one  an- 
other and  their  findings  are  identical. 

The  old  Hebrew  prophets,  through  the  chan- 
nel of  the  spirit,  perceived  and  enunciated 
some  wonderful  laws  of  the  natural  and  nor- 
mal life — that  are  now  being  confirmed  by 
well-established  laws  of  mental  and  spiritual 
science — and  that  are  now  producing  these 
identical  results  in  the  lives  of  great  num- 
bers among  us  today,  when  they  said :  "  And 
thine  ears  shall  hear  a  word  behind  thee,  say- 
ing, This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it,  when  ye 
turn  to  the  right  hand  and  when  ye  turn  to 
the  left." 

And  again :  "  The  Lord  is  with  you,  while 
ye  be  with  him;  and  if  ye  seek  him,  he  will 
be  found  of  you;  but  if  ye  forsake  him,  he 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    13 

will  forsake  you."  "  Thou  wilt  keep  him  in 
perfect  peace,  whose  mind  is  stayed  on  thee; 
because  he  trusteth  in  thee."  "  The  Lord  in 
the  midst  of  thee  is  mighty."  "  He  that  dwell- 
eth  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High  shall 
abide  under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty." 
"  Thou  shalt  be  in  league  with  the  stones  of 
the  field,  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  shall  be  at 
peace  with  thee."  "  Commit  thy  way  unto 
the  Lord:  trust  also  in  him  and  he  shall  bring 
it  to  pass."  Now  these  formulations  all  mean 
something  of  a  very  definite  nature,  or,  they 
mean  nothing  at  all.  If  they  are  actual  ex- 
pressions of  fact,  they  are  governed  by  cer- 
tain definite  and  immutable  laws. 

These  men  gave  us,  however,  no  knowledge 
of  the  laws  underlying  the  workings  of  these 
inner  forces  and  powers;  they  perhaps  had  no 
such  knowledge  themselves.  They  were  intui- 
tive perceptions  of  truth  on  their  part.  The 
scientific  spirit  of  this,  our  age,  was  entirely 
unknown  to  them.  The  growth  of  the  race 
in  the  meantime,  the  development  of  the 
scientific  spirit  in  the  pursuit  and  the  finding 
of  truth,  makes  us  infinitely  beyond  them  in 
some  things,  while  in  others  they  were  far 
ahead  of  us.  But  this  fact  remains,  and  this 
is  the  important  fact:  If  these  things  were 
actual  facts  in  the  lives  of  these  early  Hebrew 
prophets,  they  are  then  actual  facts  in  our 


lives  right  now,  today;  or,  if  not  actual  facts, 
then  they  are  facts  that  still  lie  in  the  realm  of 
the  potential,  only  waiting  to  be  brought  into 
the  realm  of  the  actual. 

These  were  not  unusual  men  in  the  sense 
that  the  Infinite  Power,  God,  if  you  please, 
could  or  did  speak  to  them  alone.  They  are 
types,  they  are  examples  of  how  any  man  or 
any  woman,  through  desire  and  through  will, 
can  open  himself  or  herself  to  the  leadings  of 
Divine  Wisdom,  and  have  actualised  in  his 
or  her  life  an  ever-growing  sense  of  Divine 
Power.  For  truly  "  God  is  the  same  yester- 
day, and  today,  and  forever."  His  laws  are 
unchanging  as  well  as  immutable. 

None  of  these  men  taught,  then,  how  to 
recognise  the  Divine  Voice  within,  nor  how 
to  become  continually  growing  embodiments 
of  the  Divine  Power.  They  gave  us  perhaps, 
though,  all  they  were  able  to  give.  Then  came 
Jesus,  the  successor  of  this  long  line  of  illustri- 
ous Hebrew  prophets,  with  a  greater  aptitude 
for  the  things  of  the  spirit — the  supreme  em- 
bodiment of  Divine  realisation  and  revelation. 
With  a  greater  knowledge  of  truth  than  they, 
he  did  greater  things  than  they. 

He  not  only  did  these  works,  but  he  showed 
how  he  did  them.  He  not  only  revealed  the 
Way,  but  so  earnestly  and  so  diligently  he  im- 
plored his  hearers  to  follow  the  Way.  He 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    15 

makes  known  the  secret  of  his  insight  and  his 
power :  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you 
I  speak  not  of  myself:  but  the  Father  that 
dwelleth  in  me,  he  doeth  the  works."  Again, 
"  I  can  of  my  own  self  do  nothing."  And  he 
then  speaks  of  his  purpose,  his  aim :  "  I  am 
come  that  ye  might  have  life,  and  that  ye 
might  have  it  more  abundantly."  A  little 
later  he  adds :  "  The  works  that  I  do  ye  shall 
do  also."  Now  again,  these  things  mean 
something  of  a  very  definite  nature,  or  they 
mean  nothing  at  all. 

The  works  done,  the  results  achieved  by 
Jesus'  own  immediate  disciples  and  followers, 
and  in  turn  their  followers,  as  well  as  in  the 
early  church  for  close  to  two  hundred  years 
after  his  time,  all  attest  the  truth  of  his  teach- 
ing and  demonstrate  unmistakably  the  results 
that  follow. 

Down  through  the  intervening  centuries, 
the  teachings,  the  lives  and  the  works  of  vari- 
ous seers,  sages,  and  mystics,  within  the  church 
and  out  of  the  church,  have  likewise  attested 
the  truth  of  his  teachings.  The  bulk  of  the 
Christian  world,  however,  since  the  third 
century,  has  been  so  concerned  with  various 
theories  and  teachings  concerning  Jesus,  that 
it  has  missed  almost  completely  the  real  vital 
and  vitalising  teachings  of  Jesus. 

We  have  not  been  taught  primarily  to  fol- 


16    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

low  his  injunctions,  and  to  apply  the  truths 
that  he  revealed  to  the  problems  of  our  every- 
day living.  Within  the  last  two  score  of  years 
or  a  little  more,  however,  there  has  been  a  great 
going  back  directly  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
and  a  determination  to  prove  their  truth  and 
to  make  effective  their  assurances.  Also  vari- 
ous laws  in  the  realm  of  Mental  and  Spiritual 
Science  have  become  clearly  established  and 
clearly  formulated,  that  confirm  all  his  funda- 
mental teachings. 

There  are  now  definite  and  well-defined 
laws  in  relation  to  thought  as  a  force,  and  the 
methods  as  to  how  it  determines  our  material 
and  bodily  conditions.  There  are  now  certain 
well-defined  laws  pertaining  to  the  subcon- 
scious mind,  its  ceaseless  building  activities, 
how  it  always  takes  its  direction  from  the 
active,  thinking  mind,  and  how  through  this 
channel  we  may  connect  ourselves  with  reser- 
voirs of  power,  so  to  speak,  in  an  intelligent 
and  effective  manner. 

There  are  now  well-understood  laws  under- 
lying mental  suggestion,  whereby  it  can  be 
made  a  tremendous  source  of  power  in  our 
own  lives,  and  can  likewise  be  made  an  effec- 
tive agency  in  arousing  the  motive  powers  of 
another  for  his  or  her  healing,  habit-forming, 
character-building.  There  are  likewise  well- 
established  facts  not  only  as  to  the  value,  but 


I? 

the  absolute  need  of  periods  of  meditation  and 
quiet,  alone  with  the  Source  of  our  being, 
stilling  the  outer  bodily  senses,  and  fulfilling 
the  conditions  whereby  the  Voice  of  the  Spirit 
can  speak  to  us  and  through  us,  and  the  power 
of  the  Spirit  can  manifest  in  and  through  us. 

A  nation  is  great  only  as  its  people  are 
great.  Its  people  are  great  in  the  degree  that 
they  strike  the  balance  between  the  life  of  the 
mind  and  the  spirit — all  the  finer  forces  and 
emotions  of  life — and  their  outer  business 
organisation  and  activities.  When  the  latter 
become  excessive,  when  they  grow  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  former,  then  the  inevitable  decay 
sets  in,  that  spells  the  doom  of  that  nation, 
and  its  time  is  tolled  off  in  exactly  the  same 
manner,  and  under  the  same  law,  as  has  that 
of  all  the  other  nations  before  it  that  sought 
to  reverse  the  Divine  order  of  life. 

The  human  soul  and  its  welfare  is  the  high- 
est business  that  any  state  can  give  its  atten- 
tion to.  To  recognise  or  to  fail  to  recognise 
the  value  of  the  human  soul  in  other  nations, 
determines  its  real  greatness  and  grandeur,  or 
its  self-complacent  but  essential  vacuity.  It 
is  possible  for  a  nation,  through  subtle  delu- 
sions, to  get  such  an  attack  of  the  big  head 
that  it  bends  over  backwards,  and  it  is  liable, 
in  this  exposed  position,  to  get  a  thrust  in  its 
vitals. 


i8   HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

To  be  carried  too  far  along  the  road  of  effi- 
ciency, big  business,  expansion,  world  power, 
domination,  at  the  expense  of  the  great  spir- 
itual verities,  the  fundamental  humanities  of 
national  life,  that  make  for  the  real  life  and 
welfare  of  its  people,  and  that  give  also  its 
true  and  just  relations  with  other  nations  and 
their  people,  is  both  dangerous  and  in  the  end 
suicidal — it  can  end  in  nothing  but  loss  and 
eventual  disaster.  A  silent  revolution  of 
thought  is  taking  place  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  of  all  nations  at  this  time,  and  will 
continue  for  some  years  to  come.  A  stock-tak- 
ing period  in  which  tremendous  revaluations 
are  under  way,  is  on.  It  is  becoming  clear- 
cut  and  decisive. 


II 


SOUL,    MIND,    BODY— THE    SUBCONSCIOUS 
MIND  THAT  INTERRELATES  THEM 

There  is  a  notable  twofold  characteristic  of 
this  our  age — we  might  almost  say:  of  this 
our  generation.  It  is  on  the  one  hand  a  tre- 
mendously far-reaching  interest  in  the  deeper 
spiritual  realities  of  life,  in  the  things  of  the 
mind  and  the  Spirit.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  a  materialism  that  is  apparent  to  all, 
likewise  far-reaching.  We  are  witnessing  the 
two  moving  along,  apparently  at  least,  side  by 
side. 

There  are  those  who  believe  that  out  of  the 
latter  the  former  is  arising,  that  we  are  wit- 
nessing another  great  step  forward  on  the 
part  of  the  human  race — a  new  era  or  age,  so 
to  speak.  There  are  many  things  that  would 
indicate  this  to  be  a  fact.  The  fact  that  the 
material  alone  does  not  satisfy,  and  that  from 
the  very  constitution  of  the  human  mind  and 
soul,  it  cannot  satisfy,  may  be  a  fundamental 
reason  for  this. 

It  may  be  also  that  as  we  are  apprehending, 
'9 


ao   HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

to  a  degree  never  equalled  in  the  world's  his- 
tory, the  finer  forces  in  nature,  and  are  using 
them  in  a  very  practical  and  useful  way  in 
the  affairs  and  the  activities  of  the  daily  life, 
we  are  also  and  perhaps  in  a  more  pronounced 
degree,  realising,  understanding,  and  using  the 
finer,  the  higher  insights  and  forces,  and  there- 
fore powers,  of  mind,  of  spirit,  and  of  body. 

I  think  there  is  a  twofold  reason  for  this 
widespread  and  rapidly  increasing  interest. 
A  new  psychology,  or  perhaps  it  were  better 
to  say,  some  new  and  more  fully  established 
laws  of  psychology,  pertaining  to  the  realm 
of  the  subconscious  mind,  its  nature,  and  its 
peculiar  activities  and  powers,  has  brought 
us  another  agency  in  life  of  tremendous  sig- 
nificance and  of  far-reaching  practical  use. 

Another  reason  is  that  the  revelation  and 
the  religion  of  Jesus  the  Christ  is  witnessing 
a  new  birth,  as  it  were.  We  are  finding  at 
last  an  entirely  new  content  in  his  teachings, 
as  well  as  in  his  life.  We  are  dropping  our 
interest  in  those  phases  of  a  Christianity  that 
he  probably  never  taught,  and  that  we  have 
many  reasons  now  to  believe  he  never  even 
thought — things  that  were  added  long  years 
after  his  time. 

We  are  conscious,  however,  as  never  before, 
that  that  wonderful  revelation,  those  wonder- 
ful teachings,  and  above  all  that  wonderful 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    ai 

life,  have  a  content  that  can,  that  does,  inspire, 
lift  up,  and  make  more  effective,  more  power- 
ful, more  successful,  and  more  happy,  the  life 
of  every  man  and  every  woman  who  will  ac- 
cept, who  will  appropriate,  who  will  live  his 
teachings. 

Look  at  it,  however  we  will,  this  it  is  that 
accounts  for  the  vast  number  of  earnest, 
thoughtful,  forward  looking  men  and  women 
who  are  passing  over,  and  in  many  cases  are 
passing  from,  traditional  Christianity,  and 
who  either  of  their  own  initiative,  or  under 
other  leadership,  are  going  back  to  those  sim- 
ple, direct,  God-impelling  teachings  of  the 
Great  Master.  They  are  finding  salvation  in 
his  teachings  and  his  example,  where  they 
never  could  find  it  in  various  phases  of  the  tra- 
ditional teachings  about  him. 

It  is  interesting  to  realise,  and  it  seems  al- 
most strange  that  this  new  finding  in  psy- 
chology, and  that  this  new  and  vital  content 
in  Christianity,  have  come  about  at  almost 
identically  the  same  time.  Yet  it  is  not 
strange,  for  the  one  but  serves  to  demonstrate 
in  a  concrete  and  understandable  manner  the 
fundamental  and  essential  principles  of  the 
other.  Many  of  the  Master's  teachings  of  the 
inner  life,  teachings  of  "  the  Kingdom,"  given 
so  far  ahead  of  his  time  that  the  people  in 
general,  and  in  many  instances  even  his  dis- 


22    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

ciples,  were  incapable  of  fully  comprehending 
and  understanding  them,  are  now  being  con- 
firmed and  further  elucidated  by  clearly  de- 
fined laws  of  psychology. 

Speculation  and  belief  are  giving  way  to 
a  greater  knowledge  of  law.  The  supernatural 
recedes  into  the  background  as  we  delve 
deeper  into  the  supernormal.  The  unusual 
loses  its  miraculous  element  as  we  gain  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  whereby  the  thing  is  done. 
We  are  realising  that  no  miracle  has  ever 
been  performed  in  the  world's  history  that 
was  not  through  the  understanding  and  the 
use  of  Law. 

Jesus  did  unusual  things ;  but  he  did  them 
because  of  his  unusual  understanding  of  the 
law  through  which  they  could  be  done.  He 
would  not  have  us  believe  otherwise.  To  do 
so  would  be  a  distinct  contradiction  of  the 
whole  tenor  of  his  teachings  and  his  injunc- 
tions. Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free,  was  his  own  admonition. 
It  was  the  great  and  passionate  longing  of  his 
master  heart  that  the  people  to  whom  he  came, 
grasp  the  interior  meanings  of  his  teachings. 
How  many  times  he  felt  the  necessity  of  rebuk- 
ing even  his  disciples  for  dragging  his  teachings 
down  through  their  material  interpretations. 
As  some  of  the  very  truths  that  he  taught  are 
now  corroborated  and  more  fully  understood, 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT   aj 

and  in  some  cases  amplified  by  well-established 
laws  of  psychology,  mystery  recedes  into  the 
background. 

We  are  reconstructing  a  more  natural,  a 
more  sane,  a  more  common-sense  portrait 
of  the  Master.  "  It  is  the  spirit  that  quick- 
eneth,"  said  he ;  "  the  flesh  profiteth  noth- 
ing; the  words  that  I  speak  unto  you, 
they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life."  Shall  we 
recall  again  in  this  connection :  "  I  am  come 
that  ye  might  have  life  and  that  ye  might 
have  it  more  abundantly"?  When,  therefore, 
we  take  him  at  his  word,  and  listen  intently 
to  his  words,  and  not  so  much  to  the  words 
of  others  about  him;  when  we  place  our  em- 
phasis upon  the  fundamental  spiritual  truths 
that  he  revealed  and  that  he  pleaded  so 
earnestly  to  be  taken  in  the  simple,  direct  way 
in  which  he  taught  them,  we  are  finding  that 
the  religion  of  the  Christ  means  a  clearer  and 
healthier  understanding  of  life  and  its  prob- 
lems through  a  greater  knowledge  of  the  ele- 
mental forces  and  laws  of  life. 

Ignorance  enchains  and  enslaves.  Truth — 
which  is  but  another  way  of  saying  a  clear 
and  definite  knowledge  of  Law,  the  elemental 
laws  of  soul,  of  mind,  and  body,  and  of  the  uni- 
verse about  us — brings  freedom.  Jesus  revealed 
essentially  a  spiritual  philosophy  of  life.  His 
whole  revelation  pertained  to  the  essential 


24    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

divinity  of  the  human  soul  and  the  great  gains 
that  would  follow  the  realisation  of  this  fact. 
His  whole  teaching  revolved  continually 
around  his  own  expression,  used  again  and 
again,  the  Kingdom  of  God,  or  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  and  which  he  so  distinctly  stated  was 
an  inner  state  or  consciousness  or  realisation. 
Something  not  to  be  found  outside  of  oneself 
but  to  be  found  only  within. 

We  make  a  great  error  to  regard  man  as 
merely  a  duality — mind  and  body.  Man  is  a 
trinity, — soul,  mind,  and  body,  each  with  its 
own  functions, — and  it  is  the  right  co-ordinat- 
ing of  these  that  makes  the  truly  efficient  and 
eventually  the  perfect  life.  Anything  less  is 
always  one-sided  and  we  may  say,  continually 
out  of  gear.  It  is  essential  to  a  correct  under- 
standing, and  therefore  for  any  adequate  use 
of  the  potential  powers  and  forces  of  the  inner 
life,  to  realise  this. 

It  is  the  physical  body  that  relates  us  to 
the  physical  universe  about  us,  that  in  which 
we  find  ourselves  in  this  present  form  of  exist- 
ence. But  the  body,  wondrous  as  it  is  in  its 
functions  and  its  mechanism,  is  not  the  life. 
It  has  no  life  and  no  power  in  itself.  It  is 
of  the  earth,  earthy.  Every  particle  of  it  has 
come  from  the  earth  through  the  food  we 
eat  in  combination  with  the  air  we  breathe  and 
the  water  we  drink,  and  every  part  of  it  in 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT   25 

time  will  go  back  to  the  earth.  It  is  the  house 
we  inhabit  while  here. 

We  can  make  it  a  hovel  or  a  mansion;  we 
can  make  it  even  a  pig-sty  or  a  temple,  accord- 
ing as  the  soul,  the  real  self,  chooses  to  func- 
tion through  it.  We  should  make  it  servant, 
but  through  ignorance  of  the  real  powers 
within,  we  can  permit  it  to  become  master. 
"  Know  ye  not,"  said  the  Great  Apostle  to 
the  Gentiles,  "  that  your  body  is  the  temple  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  in  you,  which  ye 
have  of  God,  and  ye  are  not  your  own?" 

The  soul  is  the  self,  the  soul  made  in  the 
image  of  Eternal  Divine  Life,  which,  as  Jesus 
said,  is  Spirit.  The  essential  reality  of  the 
soul  is  Spirit.  Spirit — Being — is  one  and  indi- 
visible, manifesting  itself,  however,  in  individ- 
ual forms  in  existence.  Divine  Being  and  the 
human  soul  are  therefore  in  essence  the  same, 
the  same  in  quality.  Their  difference,  which, 
however,  is  very  great — though  less  in  some 
cases  than  in  others — is  a  difference  in 
degree. 

Divine  Being  is  the  cosmic  force,  the  essen- 
tial essence,  the  Life  therefore  of  all  there  is 
in  existence.  The  soul  is  individual  personal 
existence.  The  soul  while  in  this  form  of 
existence  manifests,  functions  through  the 
channel  of  a  material  body.  It  is  the  mind 
that  relates  the  two.  It  is  through  the  medium 


26   HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

of  the  mind  that  the  two  must  be  coordinated. 
The  soul,  the  self,  while  in  this  form  of  exist- 
ence, must  have  a  body  through  which  to 
function.  The  body,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
reach  and  to  maintain  its  highest  state,  must 
be  continually  infused  with  the  life  force  of 
the  soul.  The  life  force  of  the  soul  is  Spirit. 
If  spirit,  then  essentially  one  with  Infinite 
Divine  Spirit,  for  spirit,  Being,  is  one. 

The  embodied  soul  finds  itself  the  tenant  of 
a  material  body  in  a  material  universe,  and 
according  to  a  plan  as  yet,  at  least,  beyond 
our  human  understanding,  whatever  may  be 
our  thoughts,  our  theories  regarding  it.  The 
•whole  order  of  life  as  we  see  it,  all  the  world 
of  Nature  about  us,  and  we  must  believe  the 
order  of  human  life,  is  a  gradual  evolving  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher,  from  the  cruder  to  the 
finer.  The  purpose  of  life  is  unquestionably 
unfoldment,  growth,  advancement — likewise 
the  evolving  from  the  lower  and  the  coarser  to 
the  higher  and  the  finer. 

The  higher  insights  and  powers  of  the  soul, 
always  potential  within,  become  of  value  only 
as  they  are  realised  and  used.  Evolution  im- 
plies always  involution.  The  substance  of  all 
we  shall  ever  attain  or  be,  is  within  us  now, 
waiting  for  realisation  and  thereby  expression. 
The  soul  carries  its  own  keys  to  all  wisdom 
and  to  all  valuable  and  usable  power. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    27 

It  was  that  highly  illumined  seer,  Emanuel 
Swedenborg,  who  said :  "  Every  created  thing 
is  in  itself  inanimate  and  dead,  but  it  is  ani- 
mated and  caused  to  live  by  this,  that  the 
Divine  is  in  it  and  that  it  exists  in  and  from 
the  Divine."  Again:  "The  universal  end  of 
creation  is  that  there  should  be  an  external 
union  of  the  Creator  with  the  created  universe ; 
and  this  would  not  be  possible  unless  there 
were  beings  in  whom  His  Divine  might  be 
present  as  if  in  itself;  thus  in  whom  it  might 
dwell  and  abide.  To  be  His  abode,  they  must 
receive  His  love  and  wisdom  by  a  power  which 
seems  to  be  their  own;  thus,  must  lift  them- 
selves up  to  the  Creator  as  if  by  their  own 
power,  and  unite  themselves  with  Him.  With- 
out this  mutual  action  no  union  would  be 
possible."  And  again:  "Every  one  who  duly 
considers  the  matter  may  know  that  the  body 
does  not  think,  because  it  is  material,  but  the 
soul,  because  it  is  spiritual.  All  the  rational 
life,  therefore,  which  appears  in  the  body  be- 
longs to  the  spirit,  for  the  matter  of  the  body 
is  annexed,  and,  as  it  were,  joined  to  the 
spirit,  in  order  that  the  latter  may  live  and 
perform  uses  in  the  natural  world.  .  .  .  Since 
everything  which  lives  in  the  body,  and  acts 
and  feels  by  virtue  of  that  life,  belongs  to  the 
spirit  alone,  it  follows  that  the  spirit  is  the 
real  man;  or,  what  comes  to  the  same  thing, 


28   HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

man  himself  is  a  spirit,  in  a  form  similar  to 
that  of  his  body." 

Spirit  being  the  real  man,  it  follows  that 
the  great,  central  fact  of  all  experience,  of  all 
human  life,  is  the  coming  into  a  conscious, 
vital  realisation  of  our  source,  of  our  real 
being,  in  other  words,  of  our  essential  oneness 
with  the  spirit  of  Infinite  Life  and  Power — 
the  source  of  all  life  and  all  power.  We  need 
not  look  for  outside  help  when  we  have  within 
us  waiting  to  be  realised,  and  thereby  actual- 
ised,  this  Divine  birthright. 

Browning  was  prophet  as  well  as  poet 
when  in  "  Paracelsus  "  he  said : 

Truth  is  within  ourselves ;  it  takes  no  rise 
From  outward  things,  whate'er  you  may  be- 
lieve. 

There  is  an  inmost  centre  in  us  all, 
Where  truth  abides  in  fulness;  and  around 
Wall  upon  wall,  the  gross  flesh  hems  it  in, 
This  perfect,  clear  perception — which  is  truth. 
A  baffling  and  perverting  carnal  mesh 
Binds  it,  and  makes  all  error :  and,  to  know 
Rather  consists  in  opening  out  a  way 
Whence  the  imprisoned  splendour  may  escape, 
Than  in  effecting  entry  for  a  light 
Supposed  to  be  without. 

How  strangely  similar  in  meaning  it  seems 
to  that  saying  of  an  earlier  prophet,  Isaiah: 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    29 

"  And  thine  ears  shall  hear  a  word  behind  thee, 
saying,  This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it,  when 
ye  turn  to  the  right  hand  and  when  ye  turn 
to  the  left." 

All  great  educators  are  men  of  great  vision. 
It  was  Dr.  Hiram  Corson  who  said :  "  It  is 
what  man  draws  up  from  his  sub-self  which  is 
of  prime  importance  in  his  true  education,  not 
what  is  put  into  him.  It  is  the  occasional 
uprising  of  our  sub-selves  that  causes  us,  at 
times,  to  feel  that  we  are  greater  than  we 
know."  A  new  psychology,  spiritual  science, 
a  more  commonsense  interpretation  of  the 
great  revelation  of  the  Christ  of  Nazareth,  all 
combine  to  enable  us  to  make  this  occasional 
uprising  our  natural  and  normal  state. 

No  man  has  probably  influenced  the  educa- 
tional thought  and  practice  of  the  entire  world 
more  than  Friedrich  Froebel.  In  that  great  book 
of  his,  "  The  Education  of  Man,"  he  bases  his 
entire  system  upon  the  following,  which  con- 
stitutes the  opening  of  its  first  chapter :  "  In  all 
things  there  lives  and  reigns  an  eternal  law. 
This  all-controlling  law  is  necessarily  based 
on  an  all-pervading,  energetic,  living,  self- 
conscious,  and  hence  eternal,  Unity.  .  .  .  This 
Unity  is  God.  All  things  have  come  from  the 
Divine  Unity,  from  God,  and  have  their  origin 
in  the  Divine  Unity,  in  God  alone.  God  is  the 
sole  source  of  all  things.  All  things  live  and 


30   HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

have  their  being  in  and  through  the  Divine 
Unity,  in  and  through  God.  All  things  are 
only  through  the  divine  effluence  that  lives  in 
them.  The  divine  effluence  that  lives  in  each 
thing  is  the  essence  of  each  thing. 

"  It  is  the  destiny  and  life  work  of  all  things 
to  unfold  their  essence,  hence  their  divine 
being,  and,  therefore,  the  Divine  Unity  itself 
— to  reveal  God  in  their  external  and  transient 
being.  It  is  the  special  destiny  and  life  work 
of  man,  as  an  intelligent  and  rational  being, 
to  become  fully,  vividly,  conscious  of  this 
essence  of  the  divine  effluence  in  him,  and 
therefore  of  God. 

"  The  precept  for  life  in  general  and  for 
every  one  is:  Exhibit  only  tiny  spiritual,  thy 
life,  in  the  external,  and  by  means  of  the  ex- 
ternal in  thy  actions,  and  observe  the  require- 
ments of  thy  inner  being  and  its  nature." 

Here  is  not  only  an  undying  basis  for  all 
real  education,  but  also  the  basis  of  all  true 
religion,  as  well  as  the  basis  of  all  ideal  phi- 
losophy. Yes,  there  could  be  no  evolution,  un- 
less the  essence  of  all  to  be  evolved,  unfolded, 
were  already  involved  in  the  human  soul.  To 
follow  the  higher  leadings  of  the  soul,  which 
is  so  constituted  that  it  is  the  inlet,  and  as  a 
consequence  the  outlet  of  Divine  Spirit,  Crea- 
tive Energy,  the  real  source  of  all  wisdom 
and  power;  to  project  its  leadings  into  every 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT   31 

phase  of  material  activity  and  endeavour,  con- 
stitutes the  ideal  life.  It  was  Emerson  who 
said :  "  Every  soul  is  not  only  the  inlet,  but 
may  become  the  outlet  of  all  there  is  in  God." 
To  keep  this  inlet  open,  so  as  not  to  shut  out 
the  Divine  inflow,  is  the  secret  of  all  higher 
achievement,  as  well  as  attainment. 

There  is  a  wood  separated  by  a  single  open 
field  from  my  house.  In  it,  halfway  down  a 
little  hillside,  there  was  some  years  ago  a 
spring.  It  was  at  one  time  walled  up  with 
rather  large  loose  stone — some  three  feet 
across  at  the  top.  In  following  a  vaguely  de- 
fined trail  through  the  wood  one  day  in  the 
early  spring,  a  trail  at  one  time  evidently  con- 
siderably used,  it  led  me  to  this  spot.  I  looked 
at  the  stone  enclosure,  partly  moss-grown. 
I  wondered  why,  although  the  ground  was 
wet  around  it,  there  was  no  water  in  or  run- 
ning from  what  had  evidently  been  at  one 
time  a  well-used  spring. 

A  few  days  later  when  the  early  summer 
work  was  better  under  way,  I  took  an  imple- 
ment or  two  over,  and  half  scratching,  half 
digging  inside  the  little  wall,  I  found  layer 
after  layer  of  dead  leaves  and  sediment,  dead 
leaves  and  sediment.  Presently  water  became 
evident,  and  a  little  later  it  began  to  rise  within 
the  wall.  In  a  short  time  there  was  nearly 
three  feet  of  water.  It  was  cloudy,  no  bottom 


32    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

could  be  seen.  I  sat  down  and  waited  for  it  to 
settle. 

Presently  I  discerned  a  ledge  bottom  and 
the  side  against  the  hill  was  also  ledge.  On 
this  side,  close  to  the  bottom,  I  caught  that 
peculiar  movement  of  little  particles  of  silvery 
sand,  and  looking  more  closely  I  could  see  a 
cleft  in  the  rock  where  the  water  came  gush- 
ing and  bubbling  in.  Soon  the  entire  spring 
became  clear  as  crystal,  and  the  water  finding 
evidently  its  old  outlet,  made  its  way  down 
the  little  hillside.  I  was  soon  able  to  trace 
and  to  uncover  its  course  as  it  made  its  way 
to  the  level  place  below. 

As  the  summer  went  on  I  found  myself 
going  to  the  spot  again  and  again.  Flowers 
that  I  found  in  no  other  part  of  the  wood, 
before  the  autumn  came  were  blooming  along 
the  little  watercourse.  Birds  in  abundance 
came  to  drink  and  to  bathe.  Several  times  I 
have  found  the  half-tame  deer  there.  Twice 
we  were  but  thirty  to  forty  paces  apart. 
They  have  watched  my  approach,  and  as  I 
stopped,  have  gone  on  with  their  drinking, 
evidently  unafraid — as  if  it  were  likewise  their 
possession.  And  so  it  is. 

After  spending  a  most  valuable  hour  or  two 
in  the  quiet  there  one  afternoon,  I  could  not 
help  but  wonder  as  I  walked  home  whether 
perchance  the  spring  may  not  be  actually 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    33 

happy  in  being  able  to  resume  its  life,  to  ful- 
fil, so  to  speak,  its  destiny;  happy  also  in  the 
service  it  renders  flowers  and  the  living  wild 
things — happy  in  the  service  it  renders  even 
me.  I  am  doubly  happy  and  a  hundred  times 
repaid  in  the  little  help  I  gave  it.  It  needed 
help,  to  enable  it  effectively  to  keep  connection 
with  its  source.  As  it  became  gradually  shut 
off  from  this,  it  weakened,  became  then  stag- 
nant, and  finally  it  ceased  its  active  life. 

Containing  a  fundamental  truth  deeper  per- 
haps than  we  realise,  are  these  words  of  that 
gifted  seer,  Emanuel  Swedenborg :  "  There  is 
only  one  Fountain  of  Life,  and  the  life  of 
man  is  a  stream  therefrom,  which  if  it  were 
not  continually  replenished  from  its  source 
would  instantly  cease  to  flow."  And  likewise 
these :  "  Those  who  think  in  the  light  of  in- 
terior reason  can  see  that  all  things  are  con- 
nected by  intermediate  links  with  the  First 
Cause,  and  that  whatever  is  not  maintained 
in  that  connection  must  cease  to  exist." 

There  is  a  mystic  force  that  transcends  any 
powers  of  the  intellect  or  of  the  body,  that 
becomes  manifest  and  operative  in  the  life 
of  man  when  this  God-consciousness  becomes 
awakened  and  permeates  his  entire  being. 
Failure  to  realise  and  to  keep  in  constant  com- 
munion with  our  Source  is  what  causes  fears, 
forebodings,  worry,  inharmony,  conflict,  con- 


34    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

flict  that  downs  us  many  times  in  mind,  in 
spirit,  in  body — failure  to  follow  that  Light 
that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world,  failure  to  hear  and  to  heed  that  Voice 
of  the  soul,  that  speaks  continually  clearer  as 
we  accustom  ourselves  to  listen  to  and  to  heed 
it,  failure  to  follow  those  intuitions  with  which 
the  soul,  every  soul,  is  endowed,  and  that  lead 
us  aright  and  that  become  clearer  in  their  lead- 
ings as  we  follow  them.  It  is  this  guidance 
and  this  sustaining  power  that  all  great  souls 
fall  back  upon  in  times  of  great  crises. 

This  single  stanza  by  Edwin  Markham 
voices  the  poet's  inspiration: 

At  the  heart  of  the  cyclone  tearing  the  sky, 
And  flinging  the  clouds  and  the  towers  by, 

Is  a  place  of  central  calm; 
So,  here  in  the  roar  of  mortal  things 
I  have  a  place  where  my  spirit  sings, 

In  the  hollow  of  God's  palm. 

"  That  the  Divine  Life  and  Energy  actually 
lives  in  us,"  was  the  philosopher  Fichte's  reply 
to  the  proposition — "  the  profoundest  knowl- 
edge that  man  can  attain."  And  speaking  of 
the  man  to  whom  this  becomes  a  real,  vital, 
conscious  realisation,  he  said :  "  His.  whole  ex- 
istence flows  forth,  softly  and  gently,  from  his 
Inward  Being,  and  issues  out  into  Reality 
without  difficulty  or  hindrance." 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    35 

There  are  certain  faculties  that  we  have 
that  are  not  a  part  of  the  active  thinking  mind ; 
they  seem  to  be  no  part  of  what  we  might 
term  our  conscious  intelligence.  They  tran- 
scend any  possible  activities  of  our  regular 
mental  processes,  and  they  are  in  some 
ways  independent  of  them.  Through  some 
avenue,  suggestions,  intuitions  of  truth,  in- 
tuitions of  occurrences  of  which  through  the 
thinking  mind  we  could  know  nothing,  are  at 
times  borne  in  upon  us;  they  flash  into  our 
consciousness,  as  we  say,  quite  independent  of 
any  mental  action  on  our  part,  and  sometimes 
when  we  are  thinking  of  something  quite 
foreign  to  that  which  comes  to,  that  which 
"  impresses  "  us. 

This  seems  to  indicate  a  source  of  knowl- 
edge, a  faculty  that  is  distinct  from,  but  that 
acts  in  various  ways  in  conjunction  with,  the 
active  thinking  mind.  It  performs  likewise 
certain  very  definite  and  distinct  functions  in 
connection  with  the  body.  It  is  this  that  is 
called  the  subconscious  mind — by  some  the 
superconscious  or  the  supernormal  mind,  by 
others  the  subliminal  self. 

Just  what  the  subconscious  mind  is  no  man 
knows.  It  is  easier  to  define  its  functions  and 
to  describe  its  activities  than  it  is  to  state 
in  exact  terms  what  it  is.  It  is  similar  in  this 
respect  to  the  physical  force — if  it  be  a  physical 


36    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

force — electricity.  It  is  only  of  late  years  that 
we  know  anything  of  electricity  at  all.  To-day 
we  know  a  great  deal  of  its  nature  and  the 
laws  of  its  action.  No  man  living  can  tell 
exactly  what  electricity  is.  We  are  neverthe- 
less making  wonderful  practical  applications 
of  it.  We  are  learning  more  about  it  con- 
tinually. Some  day  we  may  know  what 
it  actually  is. 

The  fact  that  the  subconscious  mind  seems 
to  function  in  a  realm  apart  from  anything 
that  has  to  do  with  our  conscious  mental 
processes,  and  also  that  it  has  some  definite 
functions  as  both  directing  and  building  func- 
tions to  perform  in  connection  with  the  body, 
and  that  it  is  at  the  same  time  subject  to  sug- 
gestion and  direction  from  the  active  think- 
ing mind,  would  indicate  that  it  may  be  the 
true  connecting  link,  the  medium  of  exchange, 
between  the  soul  and  the  body,  the  connector 
of  the  spiritual  and  the  material  so  far  as  man 
is  concerned. 


Ill 


THE  WAY  MIND  THROUGH  THE  SUBCON- 
SCIOUS MIND  BUILDS   BODY 

When  one  says  that  he  numbers  among  his 
acquaintances  some  who  are  as  old  at  sixty  as 
some  others  are  at  eighty,  he  but  gives  expres- 
sion to  a  fact  that  has  become  the  common 
possession  of  many.  I  have  known  those  who 
at  fifty-five  and  sixty  were  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  really  older,  more  decrepit,  and 
rapidly  growing  still  more  decrepit  both  in 
mind  and  body,  than  many  another  at  seventy 
and  seventy-five  and  even  at  eighty. 

History,  then,  is  replete  with  instances, 
memorable  instances,  of  people,  both  men  and 
women,  who  have  accomplished  things  at  an 
age — who  have  even  begun  and  carried  through 
to  successful  completion  things  at  an  age  that 
would  seem  to  thousands  of  others,  in  the  cap- 
tivity of  age,  with  their  backs  to  the  future, 
ridiculous  even  to  think  of  accomplishing,  much 
less  of  beginning.  On  account  of  a  certain 
law  that  has  always  seemed  to  me  to  exist  and 
that  I  am  now  firmly  convinced  is  very  exact 
in  its  workings,  I  have  been  interested  in  talk- 
ing with  various  ones  and  in  getting  together 
37 


38    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

various  facts  relative  to  this  great  discrepancy 
in  the  ages  of  these  two  classes  of  "  old " 
people. 

Within  the  year  I  called  upon  a  friend 
whom,  on  account  of  living  in  a  different  por- 
tion of  the  country,  I  hadn't  seen  for  nearly 
ten  years.  Conversation  revealed  to  me  the 
fact  that  he  was  then  in  his  eighty-eighth  year. 
I  could  notice  scarcely  a  change  in  his  appear- 
ance, walk,  voice,  and  spirit.  We  talked  at 
length  upon  the  various,  so-called,  periods  of 
life.  He  told  me  that  about  the  only  differ- 
ence that  he  noticed  in  himself  as  compared 
with  his  middle  life  was  that  now  when  he 
goes  out  to  work  in  his  garden,  and  among  his 
trees,  bushes,  and  vines — and  he  has  had  many 
for  many  years — he  finds  that  he  is  quite  ready 
to  quit  and  to  come  in  at  the  end  of  about  two 
hours,  and  sometimes  a  little  sooner,  when 
formerly  he  could  work  regularly  without  fa- 
tigue for  the  entire  half  day.  In  other  words, 
he  has  not  the  same  degree  of  endurance  that 
he  once  had. 

Among  others,  there  comes  to  mind  in  this 
connection  another  who  is  a  little  under 
seventy.  It  chances  to  be  a  woman.  She  is 
bent  and  decrepit  and  growing  more  so  by 
very  fixed  stages  each  twelvemonth.  I  have 
known  her  for  over  a  dozen  years.  At  the 
time  when  I  first  knew  her  she  was  scarcely 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    39 

fifty-eight,  she  was  already  bent  and  walked 
with  an  uncertain,  almost  faltering  tread.  The 
dominant  note  of  her  personality  was  then  as 
now,  but  more  so  now,  fear  for  the  present, 
fear  for  the  future,  a  dwelling  continually  on 
her  ills,  her  misfortunes,  her  symptoms,  her  ap- 
proaching and  increasing  helplessness. 

Such  cases  I  have  observed  again  and  again ; 
so  have  all  who  are  at  all  interested  in  life  and 
in  its  forces  and  its  problems.  What  is  the 
cause  of  this  almost  world-wide  difference  in 
these  two  lives?  In  this  case  it  is  as  clear  as 
day — the  mental  characteristics  and  the  mental 
habits  of  each. 

In  the  first  case,  here  was  one  who  early  got 
a  little  philosophy  into  his  life  and  then  more 
as  the  years  passed.  He  early  realised  that  in 
himself  his  good  or  his  ill  fortune  lay ;  that  the 
mental  attitude  we  take  toward  anything  de- 
termines to  a  great  extent  our  power  in  connec- 
tion with  it,  as  well  as  its  effects  upon  us.  He 
grew  to  love  his  work  and  he  did  it  daily,  but 
never  under  high  pressure.  He  was  therefore 
benefited  by  it.  His  face  was  always  to  the 
future,  even  as  it  is  to-day.  This  he  made  one 
of  the  fundamental  rules  of  his  life.  He  was 
helped  in  this,  he  told  me  in  substance,  by  an 
early  faith  which  with  the  passing  of  the  years 
has  ripened  with  him  into  a  demonstrable  con- 
viction— that  there  is  a  Spirit  of  Infinite  Life 


40    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

back  of  all,  working  in  love  in  and  through  the 
lives  of  all,  and  that  in  the  degree  that  we 
realise  it  as  the  one  Supreme  Source  of  our 
lives,  and  when  through  desire  and  will,  which 
is  through  the  channel  of  our  thoughts,  we  open 
our  lives  so  that  this  Higher  Power  can  work 
definitely  in  and  through  us,  and  then  go 
about  and  do  our  daily  work  without  fears  or 
forebodings,  the  passing  of  the  years  sees  only 
the  highest  good  entering  into  our  lives. 

In  the  case  of  the  other  one  whom  we  have 
mentioned,  a  repetition  seems  scarcely  neces- 
sary. Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  common  expres- 
sion on  the  part  of  those  who  know  her — I  have 
heard  it  numbers  of  times — is :  "  What  a  bless- 
ing it  will  be  to  herself  and  to  others  when  she 
has  gone ! " 

A  very  general  rule  with  but  few  exceptions 
can  be  laid  down  as  follows:  The  body  ordi- 
narily looks  as  old  as-  the  mind  thinks  and 
feels. 

Shakespeare  anticipated  by  many  years  the 
best  psychology  of  the  times  when  he  said :  "  It 
is  the  mind  that  makes  the  body  rich." 

It  seems  to  me  that  our  great  problem,  or 
rather  our  chief  concern,  should  not  be  so 
much  how  to  stay  young  in  the  sense  of  pos- 
sessing all  the  attributes  of  youth,  for  the 
passing  of  the  years  does  bring  changes,  but 
how  to  pass  gracefully,  and  even  magnificently, 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    41 

and  with  undiminished  vigour  from  youth  to 
middle  age,  and  then  how  to  carry  that  mid- 
dle age  into  approaching  old  age,  with  a  great 
deal  more  of  the  vigour  and  the  outlook  of 
middle  life  than  ice  ordinarily  do. 

The  mental  as  well  as  the  physical  helps  that 
are  now  in  the  possession  of  this  our  genera- 
tion, are  capable  of  working  a  revolution  in 
the  lives  of  many  who  are  or  who  may  become 
sufficiently  awake  to  them,  so  that  with  them 
there  will  not  be  that — shall  we  say — immature 
passing  from  middle  life  into  a  broken,  pur- 
poseless, decrepit,  and  sunless,  and  one  might 
almost  say,  soulless  old  age. 

It  seems  too  bad  that  so  many  among  us  just 
at  the  time  that  they  have  become  of  most  use 
to  themselves,  their  families,  and  to  the  world, 
should  suddenly  halt  and  then  continue  in 
broken  health,  and  in  so  many  cases  lie  down 
and  die.  Increasing  numbers  of  thinking  peo- 
ple the  world  over  are  now,  as  never  before, 
finding  that  this  is  not  necessary,  that  some- 
thing is  at  fault,  that  that  fault  is  in  ourselves. 
If  so,  then  reversely,  the  remedy  lies  in  our- 
selves, in  our  own  hands,  so  to  speak. 

In  order  to  aetualise  and  to  live  this  better 
type  of  life  we  have  got  to  live  better  from 
both  sides,  both  the  mental  and  the  physical, 
this  with  all  due  respect  to  Shakespeare  and  to 
all  modern  mental  scientists. 


42    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

The  body  itself,  what  we  term  the  physical 
body,  whatever  may  be  the  facts  regarding  a 
finer  spiritual  body  within  it  all  the  time  giv- 
ing form  to  and  animating  and  directing  all 
its  movements,  is  of  material  origin,  and  de- 
rives its  sustenance  from  the  food  we  take, 
from  the  air  we  breathe,  the  water  we  drink. 
In  this  sense  it  is  from  the  earth,  and  when 
we  are  through  with  it,  it  will  go  back  to  the 
earth. 

The  body,  however,  is  not  the  Life;  it  is 
merely  the  material  agency  that  enables  the 
Life  to  manifest  in  a  material  universe  for 
a  certain,  though  not  necessarily  a  given,  period 
of  time.  It  is  the  Life,  or  the  Soul,  or  the 
Personality  that  uses,  and  that  in  using  shapes 
and  moulds,  the  body  and  that  also  determines 
its  strength  or  its  weakness.  When  this  is 
separated  from  the  body,  the  body  at  once  be- 
comes a  cold,  inert  mass,  commencing  immedi- 
ately to  decompose  into  the  constituent  ma- 
terial elements  that  composed  it — literally  go- 
ing back  to  the  earth  and  the  elements  whence 
it  came. 

It  is  through  the  instrumentality  or  the 
agency  of  thought  that  the  Life,  the  Self,  uses, 
and  manifests  through,  the  body.  Again,  while 
it  is  true  that  the  food  that  is  taken  and  as- 
similated nourishes,  sustains  and  builds  the 
body,  it  is  also  true  that  the  condition  and  the 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT   43 

operation  of  the  mind  through  the  avenue  of 
thought  determines  into  what  shape  or  form 
the  body  is  so  builded.  So  in  this  sense  it  is 
true  that  mind  builds  body ;  it  is  the  agency,  the 
force  that  determines  the  shaping  of  the  ma- 
terial elements. 

Here  is  a  wall  being  built.  Bricks  are  the 
material  used  in  its  construction.  We  do  not 
say  that  the  bricks  are  building  the  wall;  we 
say  that  the  mason  is  building  it,  as  is  the  case. 
He  is  using  the  material  that  is  supplied  him, 
in  this  case  bricks,  giving  form  and  structure 
in  a  definite,  methodical  manner.  Again,  back 
of  the  mason  is  his  mind,  acting  through  the 
channel  of  his  thought,  that  is  directing  his 
hands  and  all  his  movements.  Without  this 
guiding,  directing  force  no  wall  could  take 
shape,  even  if  millions  of  bricks  were  delivered 
upon  the  scene. 

So  it  is  with  the  body.  We  take  the  food, 
the  water,  we  breathe  the  air;  but  this  is  all 
and  always  acted  upon  by  a  higher  force.  Thus 
it  is  that  mind  builds  body,  the  same  as  in 
every  department  of  our  being  it  is  the  great 
builder.  Our  thoughts  shape  and  determine 
our  features,  our  walk,  the  posture  of  our 
bodies,  our  voices;  they  determine  the  effec- 
tiveness of  our  mental  and  our  physical  activi- 
ties, as  well  as  all  our  relations  with  and 
influence  or  effects  upon  others. 


44    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

You  say :  "  I  admit  the  operation  of  and  even 
in  certain  cases  the  power  of  thought,  also  that 
at  times  it  has  an  influence  upon  our  general 
feelings,  but  I  do  not  admit  that  it  can  have 
any  direct  influence  upon  the  body."  Here  is 
one  who  has  allowed  herself  to  be  long  given 
to  grief,  abnormally  so — notice  her  lowered 
physical  condition,  her  lack  of  vitality.  The 
New  York  papers  within  the  past  twelve 
months  recorded  the  case  of  a  young  lady  in 
New  Jersey  who,  from  constant  grieving  over 
the  death  of  her  mother,  died,  fell  dead,  within 
a  week. 

A  man  is  handed  a  telegram.  He  is  eating 
and  enjoying  his  dinner.  He  reads  the  con- 
tents of  the  message.  Almost  immediately 
afterward,  his  body  is  a-tremble,  his  face  either 
reddens  or  grows  "  ashy  white,"  his  appetite  is 
gone ;  such  is  the  effect  of  the  mind  upon  the 
stomach  that  it  literally  refuses  the  food;  if 
forced  upon  it,  it  may  reject  it  entirely. 

A  message  is  delivered  to  a  lady.  She  is  in 
a  genial,  happy  mood.  Her  face  whitens;  she 
trembles  and  her  body  falls  to  the  ground  in 
a  faint,  temporarily  helpless,  apparently  life- 
less. Such  are  the  intimate  relations  between 
the  mind  and  the  body.  Raise  a  cry  of  fire  in 
a  crowded  theatre.  It  may  be  a  false  alarm. 
There  are  among  the  audience  those  who  be- 
come seemingly  palsied,  powerless  to  move.  It 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    45 

is  the  state  of  the  mind,  and  within  several 
seconds,  that  has  determined  the  state  of  these 
bodies.  Such  are  examples  of  the  wonderfully 
quick  influence  of  the  mind  on  the  body. 

Great  stress,  or  anxiety,  or  fear,  may  in  two 
weeks'  or  even  in  two  days'  time  so  work  its 
ravages  that  the  person  looks  ten  years  or  even 
twenty  years  older.  A  person  has  been  long 
given  to  worry,  or  perhaps  to  worry  in  extreme 
form  though  not  so  long — a  well-defined  case 
of  indigestion  and  general  stomach  trouble, 
with  a  generally  lowered  and  sluggish  vitality, 
has  become  pronounced  and  fixed. 

Any  type  of  thought  that  prevails  in  our 
mental  lives  will  in  time  produce  its  corre- 
spondences in  our  physical  lives.  As  we  under- 
stand better  these  laws  of  correspondences,  we 
will  be  more  careful  as  to  the  types  of  thoughts 
and  emotions  we  consciously,  or  unwittingly, 
entertain  and  live  with.  The  great  bulk  of  all 
diseases,  we  will  find,  as  we  are  continually 
finding  more  and  more,  are  in  the  mind  before 
being  in  the  body,  or  are  generated  in  the  body 
through  certain  states  and  conditions  of  mind. 

The  present  state  and  condition  of  the  body 
have  been  produced  primarily  by  the  thoughts 
that  have  been  taken  by  the  conscious  mind 
into  the  subconscious,  that  is  so  intimately 
related  to  and  that  directs  all  the  subconscious 
and  involuntary  functions  of  the  body.  Says 


46    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

one:  It  may  be  true  that  the  mind  has  had 
certain  effects  upon  the  body;  but  to  be  able 
consciously  to  affect  the  body  through  the  mind 
is  impossible  and  even  unthinkable,  for  the 
body  is  a  solid,  fixed,  material  form. 

We  must  get  over  the  idea,  as  we  quickly 
will,  if  we  study  into  the  matter,  that  the 
body,  in  fact  anything  that  we  call  material 
and  solid,  is  really  solid.  Even  in  the  case  of  a 
piece  of  material  as  "  solid  "  as  a  bar  of  steel, 
the  atoms  forming  the  molecules  are  in  con- 
tinual action  each  in  conjunction  with  its 
neighbour.  In  the  last  analysis  the  body  is 
composed  of  cells — cells  of  bone,  vital  organ, 
flesh,  sinew.  In  the  body  the  cells  are  con- 
tinually changing,  forming  and  reforming. 
Death  would  quickly  take  place  were  this  not 
true.  Nature  is  giving  us  a  new  body  prac- 
tically every  year. 

There  are  very  few  elements,  cells,  in  the 
body  of  today  that  were  there  a  year  ago. 
The  rapidity  with  which  a  cut  or  wound  on 
the  body  is  replaced  by  healthy  tissue,  the 
rapidity  with  which  it  heals,  is  an  illustration 
of  this.  One  "  touches  "  himself  in  shaving. 
In  a  week,  sometimes  in  less  than  a  week,  if  the 
blood  and  the  cell  structure  be  particularly 
healthy,  there  is  no  trace  of  the  cut,  the  forma- 
tion of  new  cell  tissue  has  completely  re- 
paired it.  Through  the  formation  of  new 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    47 

cell  structure  the  life-force  within,  acting 
through  the  blood,  is  able  to  rebuild  and 
repair,  if  not  too  much  interfered  with,  very 
rapidly.  The  reason,  we  may  say  almost  the 
sole  reason,  that  surgery  has  made  such  great 
advances  during  the  past  few  years,  so  much 
greater  correspondingly  than  medicine,  is  on 
account  of  a  knowledge  of  the  importance  of 
and  the  use  of  antiseptics — keeping  the  wound 
clean  and  entirely  free  from  all  extraneous 
matter. 

So  then,  the  greater  portion  of  the  body  is 
really  new,  therefore  young,  in  that  it  is  almost 
entirely  this  year's  growth.  Newness  of  form 
is  continually  being  produced  in  the  body  by 
virtue  of  this  process  of  perpetual  renewal  that 
is  continually  going  on,  and  the  new  cells  and 
tissues  are  just  as  new  as  is  the  new  leaf  that 
comes  forth  in  the  springtime  to  take  the  place 
of  and  to  perform  the  same  functions  as  the 
one  that  was  thrown  off  by  the  tree  last 
autumn. 

The  skin  renews  itself  through  the  casting  off 
of  used  cells  (those  that  have  already  per- 
formed their  functions)  most  rapidly,  taking 
but  a  few  weeks.  The  muscles,  the  vital  or- 
gans, the  entire  arterial  system,  the  brain  and 
the  nervous  system  all  take  longer,  but  all  are 
practically  renewed  within  a  year,  some  in 
much  less  time.  Then  comes  the  bony  struc- 


48    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

ture,  taking  the  longest,  varying,  we  are  told, 
from  seven  and  eight  months  to  a  year,  in 
unusual  cases  fourteen  months  and  longer. 

It  is,  then,  through  this  process  of  cell  forma- 
tion that  the  physical  body  has  been  built  up, 
and  through  the  same  process  that  it  is  con- 
tinually renewing  itself.  It  is  not  therefore 
at  any  time  or  at  any  age  a  solid  fixed  mass  or 
material,  but  a  structure  in  a  continually 
changing  fluid  form.  It  is  therefore  easy  to 
see  how  we  have  it  in  our  power,  when  we  are 
once  awake  to  the  relations  between  the  con- 
scious mind  and  the  subconscious — and  it  in 
turn  in  its  relations  to  the  various  involuntary 
and  vital  functions  of  the  body — to  determine 
to  a  great  extent  how  the  body  shall  be  built 
or  how  it  shall  be  rebuilt. 

Mentally  to  live  in  any  state  or  attitude  of 
mind  is  to  take  that  state  or  condition  into  the 
subconscious.  The  subconscious  mind  does  and 
always  will  produce  in  the  body  after  its  own 
kind.  It  is  through  this  law  that  we  external- 
ise and  become  in  body  what  we  live  in  our 
minds.  If  we  have  predominating  visions  of 
and  harbour  thoughts  of  old  age  and  weakness, 
this  state,  with  all  its  attendant  circumstances, 
will  become  externalised  in  our  bodies  far  more 
quickly  than  if  we  entertain  thoughts  and 
visions  of  a  different  type.  Said  Archdeacon 
Wilberforce  in  a  notable  address  in  Westmin- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT   49 

ster  Abbey  some  time  ago :  "  The  recent  re- 
searches of  scientific  men,  endorsed  by  experi- 
ments in  the  Salpetriere  in  Paris,  have  drawn 
attention  to  the  intensely  creative  power  of 
suggestions  made  by  the  conscious  mind  to  the 
subconscious  mind." 


IV 


THE    POWERFUL    AID    OF    THE    MIND    IN 

REBUILDING    BODY— HOW    BODY 

HELPS  MIND 

"  The  body  looks,"  some  one  has  said,  "  as 
old  as  the  mind  feels."  By  virtue  of  a  great 
mental  law  and  at  the  same  time  chemical 
law  we  are  well  within  the  realm  of  truth 
when  we  say:  The  body  ordinarily  is  as  old 
as  the  mind  feels. 

Every  living  organism  is  continually  going 
through  two  processes :  it  is  continually  dying, 
and  continually  being  renewed  through  the 
operation  and  the  power  of  the  Life  Force 
within  it.  In  the  human  body  it  is  through  the 
instrumentality  of  the  cell  that  this  process  is 
going  on.  The  cell  is  the  ultimate  constituent 
in  the  formation  and  in  the  life  of  tissue,  fibre, 
tendon,  bone,  muscle,  brain,  nerve  system, 
vital  organ.  It  is  the  instrumentality  that  Na- 
ture, as  we  say,  uses  to  do  her  work. 

The  cell  is  formed;  it  does  its  work;  it 
serves  its  purpose  and  dies ;  and  all  the  while 
new  cells  are  being  formed  to  take  its  place. 
This  process  of  new  cell  formation  is  going  on 
in  the  body  of  each  of  us  much  more  rapidly 

So 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    51 

and  uniformly  than  we  think.  Science  has 
demonstrated  the  fact  that  there  are  very  few 
cells  in  the  body  today  that  were  there  twelve 
months  ago.  The  form  of  the  body  remains 
practically  the  same;  but  its  constituent  ele- 
ments are  in  a  constant  state  of  change.  The 
body,  therefore,  is  continually  changing;  it  is 
never  in  a  fixed  state  in  the  sense  of  being  a 
solid,  but  is  always  in  a  changing,  fluid  state. 
It  is  being  continually  remade. 

It  is  the  Life,  or  the  Life  Force  within,  act- 
ing under  the  direction  and  guidance  of  the 
subconscious  or  subjective  mind  that  is  the 
agency  through  which  this  continually  new  cell- 
formation  process  is  going  on.  The  subcon- 
scious mind  is,  nevertheless,  always  subject  to 
suggestions  and  impressions  that  are  conveyed 
to  it  by  the  conscious  or  sense  mind ;  and  here 
lies  the  great  fact,  the  one  all-important  fact 
for  us  so  far  as  desirable  or  undesirable,  so 
far  as  healthy  or  unhealthy,  so  far  as  normal  or 
aging  body-building  is  concerned. 

That  we  have  it  in  our  power  to  determine 
our  physical  and  bodily  conditions  to  a  far 
greater  extent  than  we  do  is  an  undeniable  fact. 
That  we  have  it  in  our  power  to  determine  and 
to  dictate  the  conditions  of  "  old  age  "  to  a 
marvellous  degree  is  also  an  undeniable  fact — 
if  we  are  sufficiently  keen  and  sufficiently 
awake  to  begin  early  enough. 


52    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

If  any  arbitrary  divisions  of  the  various 
periods  of  life  were  allowable,  I  should  make 
the  enumeration  as  follows :  Youth,  barring  the 
period  of  babyhood,  to  forty-five;  middle  age, 
forty-five  to  sixty;  approaching  age,  sixty  to 
seventy-five.;  old  age,  seventy-five  to  ninety- 
five  and  a  hundred. 

That  great  army  of  people  who  "  age  "  long 
before  their  time,  that  likewise  great  army  of 
both  men  and  women  who  along  about  middle 
age,  say  from  forty-five  to  sixty,  break  and,  as 
we  say,  all  of  a  sudden  go  to  pieces,  and  many 
die,  just  at  the  period  when  they  should  be  in 
the  prime  of  life,  in  the  full  vigour  of  manhood 
and  womanhood  and  of  greatest  value  to  them- 
selves, to  their  families,  and  to  the  world,  is 
something  that  is  contrary  to  nature,  and  is 
one  of  the  pitiable  conditions  of  our  time.  A 
greater  knowledge,  a  little  foresight,  a  little 
care  in  time  could  prevent  this  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases,  in  ninety  cases  out  of  every 
hundred,  without  question. 

Abounding  health  and  strength — wholeness 
— is  the  natural  law  of  the  body.  The  Life 
Force  of  the  body,  acting  always  under  the 
direction  of  the  subconscious  mind,  will  build, 
and  always  does  build,  healthily  and  normally, 
unless  too  much  interfered  with.  It  is  this 
that  determines  the  type  of  the  cell  structure 
that  is  continually  being  built  into  the  body 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    53 

from  the  available  portions  of  the  food  that 
we  take  to  give  nourishment  to  the  body.  It 
is  affected  for  good  or  for  bad,  helped  or  hin- 
dered, in  its  operation  by  the  type  of  con- 
scious thought  that  is  directed  toward  it,  and 
that  it  is  always  influenced  by. 

Of  great  suggestive  value  is  the  following 
by  an  able  writer  and  practitioner : 

"  God  has  managed,  and  perpetually  man- 
ages, to  insert  into  our  nature  a  tendency 
toward  health,  and  against  the  unnatural  con- 
dition which  we  call  disease.  When  our  flesh 
receives  a  wound,  a  strange  nursing  and  heal- 
ing process  is  immediately  commenced  to  repair 
the  injury.  So  in  all  diseases,  organic  or  func- 
tional, this  mysterious  healing  power  sets  itself 
to  work  at  once  to  triumph  over  the  morbid 
condition.  .  .  .  Cannot  this  healing  process  be 
greatly  accelerated  by  a  voluntary  and  con- 
scious action  of  the  mind,  assisted,  if  need  be, 
by  some  other  person?  I  unhesitatingly  affirm, 
from  experience  and  observation,  that  it  can. 
By  some  volitional,  mental  effort  and  process 
of  thought,  this  sanative  colatus,  or  healing 
power  which  God  has  given  to  our  physiologi- 
cal organism,  may  be  greatly  quickened  and 
intensified  in  its  action  upon  the  body.  Here 
is  the  secret  philosophy  of  the  cures  effected 
by  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  .  There  is  a  law  of  the 
action  of  mind  on  the  body  that  is  no  more  an 


54   HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

impenetrable  mystery  than  the  law  of  gravita* 
tion.  It  can  be  understood  and  acted  upon 
in  the  cure  of  disease  as  well  as  any  other  law 
of  nature." 

If,  then,  it  be  possible  through  this  process 
to  change  physical  conditions  in  the  body  even 
after  they  have  taken  form  and  have  become 
fixed,  as  we  say,  isn't  it  possible  even  more 
easily  to  determine  the  type  of  cell  structure 
that  is  grown  in  the  first  place  ? 

The  ablest  rrfinds  in  the  world  have  thought 
and  are  thinking  that  if  we  could  find  a  way 
of  preventing  the  hardening  of  the  cells  of  the 
system,  producing  in  turn  hardened  arteries 
and  what  is  meant  by  the  general  term  "  ossi- 
fication," that  the  process  of  aging,  growing 
old,  could  be  greatly  retarded,  and  that  the 
condition  of  perpetual  youth  that  we  seem  to 
catch  glimpses  of  in  rare  individuals  here  and 
there  could  be  made  a  more  common  occur- 
rence than  we  find  it  to-day. 

The  cause  of  ossification  is  partly  mental, 
partly  physical,  and  in  connection  with  them 
both  are  hereditary  influences  and  conditions 
that  have  to  be  taken  into  consideration. 

Shall  we  look  for  a  moment  to  the  first?  The 
food  that  is  taken  into  the  system,  or  the  avail- 
able portions  of  the  food,  is  the  building  ma- 
terial ;  but  the  mind  is  always  the  builder. 

There  are,  then,  two  realms  of  mind,  the 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    55 

conscious  and  the  subconscious.  Another  way 
of  expressing  it  would  be  to  say  that  mind 
functions  through  two  avenues — the  avenue  of 
the  conscious  and  the  avenue  of  the  subcon- 
scious. The  conscious  is  the  thinking  mind; 
the  subconscious  is  the  doing  mind.  The  con- 
scious is  the  sense  mind,  it  comes  in  contact 
with  and  is  acted  upon  through  the  avenue  of 
the  five  senses.  The  subconscious  is  that 
quiet,  finer,  all-permeating  inner  mind  or  force 
that  guides  all  the  inner  functions,  the  life 
functions  of  the  body,  and  that  watches  over 
and  keeps  them  going  even  when  we  are  utterly 
unconscious  in  sleep.  The  conscious  suggests 
and  gives  directions ;  the  subconscious  receives 
and  carries  into  operation  the  suggestions  that 
are  received. 

The  thoughts,  ideas,  and  even  beliefs  and 
emotions  of  the  conscious  mind  are  the  seeds 
that  are  taken  in  by  the  subconscious  and  that 
in  this  great  realm  of  causation  will  germinate 
and  produce  of  their  own  kind.  The  chemical 
activities  that  go  on  in  the  process  of  cell 
formation  in  the  body  are  all  under  the  in- 
fluence, the  domination  of  this  great  all-per- 
meating subconscious,  or  subjective  realm 
within  us. 

In  that  able  work,  "  The  Laws  of  Psychic 
Phenomena,"  Dr.  Thomas  J.  Hudson  lays  down 
this  proposition :  "  That  the  subjective  mind  is 


56    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

constantly  amenable  to  control  by  suggestion." 
It  is  easy,  when  we  once  understand  and  appre- 
ciate this  great  fact,  to  see  how  the  body  builds, 
or  rather  is  built,  for  health  and  strength,  or 
for  disease  and  weakness;  for  youth  and 
vigour,  or  for  premature  ossification  and  age. 
It  is  easy,  then,  to  see  how  we  can  have  a  hand 
in,  in  brief  can  have  the  controlling  hand  in, 
building  either  the  one  or  the  other. 

It  is  in  the  province  of  the  intelligent  man  or 
woman  to  take  hold  of  the  wheel,  so  to  speak, 
and  to  determine  as  an  intelligent  human  being 
should,  what  condition  or  conditions  shall  be 
given  birth  and  form  to  and  be  externalised  in 
the  body. 

A  noted  thinker  and  writer  has  said :  "  What- 
ever the  mind  is  set  upon,  or  whatever  it  keeps 
most  in  view,  that  it  is  bringing  to  it,  and  the 
continual  thought  or  imagining  must  at  last 
take  form  and  shape  in  the  world  of  seen  and 
tangible  things." 

And  now,  to  be  as  concrete  as  possible,  we 
have  these  facts:  The  body  is  continually 
changing  in  that  it  is  continually  throwing  out 
and  off,  used  cells,  and  continually  building 
new  cells  to  take  their  places.  This  process, 
as  well  as  all  the  inner  functions  of  the  body, 
is  governed  and  guarded  by  the  subconscious 
realm  of  our  being.  The  subconscious  can  do 
and  does  do  whatever  it  is  actually  directed  to 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    57 

do  by  the  conscious,  thinking  mind.  "  We 
must  be  careful  on  what  we  allow  our  minds 
to  dwell,"  said  Sir  John  Lubbock,  "  the  soul 
is  dyed  by  its  thoughts." 

If  we  believe  ourselves  subject  to  weakness, 
decay,  infirmity,  when  we  should  be  "  whole," 
the  subconscious  mind  seizes  upon  the  pattern 
that  is  sent  it  and  builds  cell  structure  accord- 
ingly. This  is  one  great  reason  why  one  who 
is,  as  we  say,  chronically  thinking  and  talking 
of  his  ailments  and  symptoms,  who  is  com- 
plaining and  fearing,  is  never  well. 

To  see  one's  self,  to  believe,  and  therefore 
to  picture  one's  self  in  mind  as  strong,  healthy, 
active,  well,  is  to  furnish  a  pattern,  is  to  give 
suggestion  and  therefore  direction  to  the  sub- 
conscious so  that  it  will  build  cell  tissue  hav- 
ing the  stamp  and  the  force  of  healthy,  vital, 
active  life,  which  in  turn  means  abounding 
health  and  strength. 

So,  likewise,  at  about  the  time  that  "  old 
age  "  is  supposed  ordinarily  to  begin,  when  it  is 
believed  in  and  looked  for  by  those  about  us 
and  those  who  act  in  accordance  with  this 
thought,  if  we  fall  into  this  same  mental  drift, 
we  furnish  the  subconscious  the  pattern  that  it 
will  inevitably  build  bodily  conditions  in  ac- 
cordance with.  We  will  then  find  the  ordi- 
narily understood  marks  and  conditions  of  old 
age  creeping  upon  us,  and  we  will  become  sub- 


58    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

ject  to  their  influences  in  every  department  of 
our  being.  Whatever  is  thus  pictured  in  the 
mind  and  lived  in,  the  Life  Force  will  produce. 

To  remain  young  in  mind,  in  spirit,  in  feel- 
ing, is  to  remain  young  in  body.  Growing  old 
at  the  period  or  age  at  which  so  many  grow  old, 
is  to  a  great  extent  a  matter  of  habit. 

To  think  health  and  strength,  to  see  our- 
selves continually  growing  in  this  condition, 
is  to  set  into  operation  the  subtlest  dynamic 
force  for  the  externalisation  of  these  conditions 
in  the  body  that  can  be  even  conceived  of.  If 
one's  bodily  condition,  through  abnormal,  false 
mental  and  emotional  habits,  has  become  ab- 
normal and  diseased,  this  same  attitude  of 
mind,  of  spirit,  of  imagery,  is  to  set  into  opera- 
tion a  subtle  and  powerful  corrective  agency 
that,  if  persisted  in,  will  inevitably  tend  to 
bring  normal,  healthy  conditions  to  the  front 
again. 

True,  if  these  abnormal,  diseased  conditions 
have  been  helped  on  or  have  been  induced  by 
wrong  physical  habits,  by  the  violation  of 
physical  laws,  this  violation  must  cease.  But 
combine  the  two,  and  then  give  the  body  the 
care  that  it  requires  in  a  moderate  amount  of 
simple,  wholesome  food,  regular  cleansing  to 
assist  it  in  the  elimination  of  impurities  and  of 
used  cell  structure  that  is  being  regularly  cast 
off,  an  abundance  of  pure  air  and  of  moderate 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    59 

exercise,  and  a  change  amounting  almost  to 
a  miracle  can  be  wrought — it  may  be,  indeed, 
what  many  people  of  olden  time  would  have 
termed  a  miracle. 

The  mind  thus  becomes  "  a  silent,  transform- 
ing, sanative  energy "  of  great  potency  and 
power.  That  it  can  be  so  used  is  attested  by 
the  fact  of  the  large  numbers,  and  the  rapidly 
increasing  numbers,  all  about  us  who  are  so 
using  it.  This  is  what  many  people  all  over 
our  country  are  doing  to-day,  with  the  results 
that,  by  a  great  elemental  law — Divine  Law  if 
you  choose — many  are  curing  themselves  of 
various  diseases,  many  are  exchanging  weak- 
ness and  impotence  for  strength  and  power, 
many  are  ceasing,  comparatively  speaking,  are 
politely  refusing,  to  grow  old. 

Thought  is  a  force,  subtle  and  powerful,  and 
it  tends  inevitably  to  produce  of  its  kind. 

In  forestalling  "  old  age,"  at  least  old  age 
of  the  decrepit  type,  it  is  the  period  of  middle 
life  where  the  greatest  care  is  to  be  employed. 
If,  at  about  the  time  "  old  age  "  is  supposed 
ordinarily  to  begin,  the  "  turn  **  at  middle  life 
or  a  little  later,  we  would  stop  to  consider 
what  this  period  really  means,  that  it  means 
with  both  men  and  women  a  period  of  life 
where  some  simple  readjustments  are  to  be 
made,  a  period  of  a  little  rest,  a  little  letting 
up,  a  temporary  getting  back  to  the  playtime 


5o   HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

of  earlier  years  and  a  bringing  of  these  char- 
acteristics back  into  life  again,  then  a  complete 
letting-up  would  not  be  demanded  by  nature 
a  little  later,  as  it  is  demanded  in  such  a 
lamentably  large  number  of  cases  at  the 
present  time. 

So  in  a  definite,  deliberate  way,  youth  should 
be  blended  into  the  middle  life,  and  the  re- 
sultant should  be  a  force  that  will  stretch  mid- 
dle life  for  an  indefinite  period  into  the  future. 

And  what  an  opportunity  is  here  for  mothers, 
at  about  the  time  that  the  children  have  grown, 
and  some  or  all  even  have  "  flown " !  Of 
course,  Mother  shouldn't  go  and  get  foolish, 
she  shouldn't  go  cavorting  around  in  a  sixteen- 
year-old  hat,  when  the  hat  of  the  thirty-five- 
year-old  would  undoubtedly  suit  her  better; 
but  she  should  rejoice  that  the  golden  period 
of  life  is  still  before  her.  Now  she  has  leisure 
to  do  many  of  those  things  that  she  has  so 
long  wanted  to  do. 

The  world's  rich  field  of  literature  is  before 
her ;  the  line  of  study  or  work  she  has  longed  to 
pursue,  she  bringing  to  it  a  better  equipped 
mind  and  experience  than  she  has  ever  had  be- 
fore. There  is  also  an  interest  in  the  life  and 
welfare  of  her  community,  in  civic,  public  wel- 
fare lines  that  the  present  and  the  quick- 
coming  time  before  us  along  women's  enfran- 
chisement lines,  along  women's  commonsense 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    61 

equality  lines,  is  making  her  a  responsible  and 
full  sharer  in.  And  how  much  more  valuable 
she  makes  herself,  also,  to  her  children,  as 
well  as  to  her  community,  inspiring  in  them 
greater  confidence,  respect,  and  admiration 
than  if  she  allows  herself  to  be  pushed  into  the 
background  by  her  own  weak  and  false 
thoughts  of  herself,  or  by  the  equally  foolish 
thoughts  of  her  children  in  that  she  is  now,  or 
is  at  any  time,  to  become  a  back  number. 

Life,  as  long  as  we  are  here,  should  mean 
continuous  unfoldment,  advancement,  and  this 
is  undoubtedly  the  purpose  of  life;  but  age- 
producing  forces  and  agencies  mean  deteriora- 
tion, as  opposed  to  growth  and  unfoldment. 
They  ossify,  weaken,  stiffen,  deaden,  both  men- 
tally and  physically.  For  him  or  her  who 
yearns  to  stay  young,  the  coming  of  the  years 
does  not  mean  or  bring  abandonment  of  hope 
or  of  happiness  or  of  activity.  It  means  com- 
parative vigour  combined  with  continually 
larger  experience,  and  therefore  even  more 
usefulness,  and  hence  pleasure  and  happiness. 

Praise  also  to  those  who  do  not  allow  any 
one  or  any  number  of  occurrences  in  life  to 
sour  their  nature,  rob  them  of  their  faith,  or 
cripple  their  energies  for  the  enjoyment  of  the 
fullest  in  life  while  here.  It's  those  people 
who  never  allow  themselves  in  spirit  to  be 
downed,  no  matter  what  their  individual  prob- 


62    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

lems,  surroundings,  or  conditions  may  be,  but 
who  chronically  bob  up  serenely  who,  after  all, 
are  the  masters  of  life,,  and  who  are  likewise 
the  strength-givers  and  the  helpers  of  others. 
There  are  multitudes  in  the  world  today,  there 
are  readers  of  this  volume,  who  could  add  a 
dozen  or  a  score  of  years — teeming,  healthy 
years — to  their  lives  by  a  process  of  self-exami- 
nation, a  mental  housecleaning,  and  a  re- 
constructed, positive,  commanding  type  of 
thought. 

Tennyson  was  prophet  when  he  sang: 

Cleave  then  to  the  sunnier  side  of  doubt, 
And  cling  to  Faith  beyond  the  forms  of  Faith ! 
She  reels  not  in  the  storm  of  warring  words, 
She   brightens   at   the   clash   of   "  Yes "    and 

"  No," 
She  sees  the  Best  that  glimmers  through  the 

Worst, 

She  feels  the  sun  is  hid  but  for  a  night, 
She  spies  the  summer  through  the  winter  bud, 
She  tastes  the  fruit  before  the  blossom  falls, 
She  hears  the  lark  within  the  songless  egg, 
She   finds   the    fountain   where   they   wailed 

"  mirage." 


V 


THOUGHT  AS  A  FORCE  IN  DAILY  LIVING 

Some  years  ago  an  experience  was  told  to 
me  that  has  been  the  cause  of  many  interest- 
ing observations  since.  It  was  related  by  a 
man  living  in  one  of  our  noted  university 
towns  in  the  Middle  West.  He  was  a  well- 
known  lecture  manager,  having  had  charge  of 
many  lecture  tours  for  John  B.  Gough,  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  and  others  of  like  standing. 
He  himself  was  a  man  of  splendid  character, 
was  of  a  sensitive  organism,  as  we  say,  and 
had  always  taken  considerable  interest  in  the 
powers  and  forces  pertaining  to  the  inner  life. 

As  a  young  man  he  had  left  home,  and  dur- 
ing a  portion  of  his  first  year  away  he  had 
found  employment  on  a  Mississippi  steamboat. 
One  day  in  going  down  the  river,  while  he 
was  crossing  the  deck,  a  sudden  stinging  sen- 
sation seized  him  in  the  head,  and  instantly 
vivid  thoughts  of  his  mother,  back  at  the  old 
home,  flashed  into  his  mind.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  feeling  of  depression  during  the 
remainder  of  the  day.  The  occurrence  was  so 
63 


64   HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

unusual  and  the  impression  of  it  was  so  strong 
that  he  made  an  account  of  it  in  his  diary. 

Some  time  later,  on  returning  home,  he  was 
met  in  the  yard  by  his  mother.  She  was  wear- 
ing a  thin  cap  on  her  head  which  he  had  never 
seen  her  wear  before.  He  remarked  in  regard 
to  it.  She  raised  the  cap  and  doing  so  re- 
vealed the  remains  of  a  long  ugly  gash  on  the 
side  of  her  head.  She  then  said  that  some 
months  before,  naming  the  time,  she  had  gone 
into  the  back  yard  and  had  picked  up  a  heavy 
crooked  stick  having  a  sharp  end,  to  throw 
it  out  of  the  way,  and  in  throwing  it,  it  had 
struck  a  wire  clothesline  immediately  above 
her  head  and  had  rebounded  with  such  force 
that  it  had  given  her  the  deep  scalp  wound 
of  which  she  was  speaking.  On  unpacking  his 
bag  he  looked  into  his  diary  and  found  that 
the  time  she  had  mentioned  corresponded  ex- 
actly with  the  strange  and  unusual  occurrence 
to  himself  as  they  were  floating  down  the 
Mississippi. 

The  mother  and  son  were  very  near  one  to 
the  other,  close  in  their  sympathies,  and  there 
can  be  but  little  doubt  that  the  thoughts  of 
the  mother  as  she  was  struck  went  out,  and 
perhaps  went  strongly  out,  to  her  boy  who  was 
now  away  from  home.  He,  being  sensitively 
organised  and  intimately  related  to  her  in 
thought,  and  alone  at  the  time,  undoubtedly 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    65 

got,  if  not  her  thought,  at  least  the  effects  of 
her  thought,  as  it  went  out  to  him  under  these 
peculiar  and  tense  conditions. 

There  are  scores  if  not  hundreds  of  occur- 
rences of  a  more  or  less  similar  nature  that 
have  occurred  in  the  lives  of  others,  many  of 
them  well  authenticated.  How  many  of  us, 
even,  have  had  the  experience  of  suddenly 
thinking  of  a  friend  of  whom  we  have  not 
thought  for  weeks  or  months,  and  then  entirely 
unexpectedly  meeting  or  hearing  from  this 
same  friend.  How  many  have  had  the  experi- 
ence of  writing  a  friend,  one  who  has  not  been 
written  to  or  heard  from  for  a  long  time,  and 
within  a  day  or  two  getting  a  letter  from  that, 
friend — the  letters  "  crossing,"  as  we  are  ac- 
customed to  say.  There  are  many  other  ex- 
periences or  facts  of  a  similar  nature,  and  many 
of  them  exceedingly  interesting,  that  could  be 
related  did  space  permit.  These  all  indicate 
to  me  that  thoughts  are  not  mere  indefinite 
things  but  that  thoughts  are  forces,  that  they 
go  out,  and  that  every  distinct,  clear-cut 
thought  has,  or  may  have,  an  influence  of 
some  type. 

Thought  transference,  which  is  now  unques- 
tionably an  established  fact,  notwithstanding 
much  chicanery  that  is  still  to  be  found  in  con- 
nection with  it,  is  undoubtedly  to  be  explained 
through  the  fact  that  thoughts  are  forces.  A 


66    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

positive  mind  through  practice,  at  first  with 
very  simple  beginnings,  gives  form  to  a 
thought  that  another  mind  open  and  receptive 
to  it — and  sufficiently  attuned  to  the  other 
mind — is  able  to  receive. 

Wireless  telegraphy,  as  a  science,  has  been 
known  but  a  comparatively  short  time.  The 
laws  underlying  it  have  been  in  the  universe 
perhaps,  or  undoubtedly,  always.  It  is  only 
lately  that  the  mind  of  man  has  been  able  to 
apprehend  them,  and  has  been  able  to  con- 
struct instruments  in  accordance  with  these 
laws.  We  are  now  able,  through  a  knowledge 
of  the  laws  of  vibration  and  by  using  the  right 
sending  and  receiving  instruments,  to  send 
actual  messages  many  hundreds  of  miles  di- 
rectly through  the  ether  and  without  the  more 
clumsy  accessories  of  poles  and  wires.  This 
much  of  it  we  know — there  is  perhaps  even 
more  yet  to  be  known. 

We  may  find,  as  I  am  inclined  to  think  we 
shall  find,  that  thought  is  a  form  of  vibration. 
When  a  thought  is  born  in  the  brain,  it  goes 
out  just  as  a  sound  wave  goes  out,  and  trans- 
mits itself  through  the  ether,  making  its  im- 
pressions upon  other  minds  that  are  in  a  suffi- 
ciently sensitive  state  to  receive  it;  this  in 
addition  to  the  effects  that  various  types  of 
thoughts  have  upon  the  various  bodily  func- 
tions of  the  one  with  whom  they  take  origin. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    67 

We  are,  by  virtue  of  the  laws  of  evolution, 
constantly  apprehending  the  finer  forces  of 
nature — the  tallow-dip,  the  candle,  the  oil 
lamp,  years  later  a  more  refined  type  of  oil, 
gas,  electricity,  the  latest  tungsten  lights, 
radium — and  we  may  be  still  only  at  the  begin- 
nings. Our  finest  electric  lights  of  today  may 
seem — will  seem — crude  and  the  quality  of 
their  light  even  more  crude,  twenty  years 
hence,  even  less.  Many  other  examples  of  our 
gradual  passing  from  the  coarser  to  the  finer 
in  connection  with  the  laws  and  forces  of  na- 
ture occur  readily  to  the  minds  of  us  all. 

The  present  great  interest  on  the  part  of 
thinking  men  and  women  everywhere,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  more  particular  studies,  experi- 
ments, and  observations  of  men  such  as  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge,  Sir  William  Ramsay,  and  others, 
in  the  powers  and  forces  pertaining  to  the 
inner  life  is  an  indication  that  we  have  reached 
a  time  when  we  are  making  great  strides 
along  these  lines.  Some  of  our  greatest  scien- 
tists are  thinking  that  we  are  on  the  eve  of 
some  almost  startling  glimpses  into  these  finer 
realms.  My  own  belief  is  that  we  are  like- 
wise on  the  eve  of  apprehending  the  more 
precise  nature  of  thought  as  a  force,  the 
methods  of  its  workings,  and  the  law  under- 
lying its  more  intimate  and  everyday  uses. 

Of  one  thing  we  can  rest  assured;  nothing 


68   HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

in  the  universe,  nothing  in  connection  with 
human  life  is  outside  of  the  Realm  of  Law. 
The  elemental  law  of  Cause  and  Effect  is  ab- 
solute in  its  workings.  One  of  the  great  laws 
pertaining  to  human  life  is:  As  is  the  inner, 
so  always  and  inevitably  is  the  outer — Cause, 
Effect.  Our  thoughts  and  emotions  are  the 
silent,  subtle  forces  that  are  constantly  exter- 
nalising themselves  in  kindred  forms  in  our 
outward  material  world.  Like  creates  like, 
and  like  attracts  like.  As  is  our  prevailing 
type  of  thought,  so  is  our  prevailing  type  and 
our  condition  of  life. 

The  type  of  thought  we  entertain  has  its  ef- 
fect upon  our  energies  and  to  a  great  extent 
upon  our  bodily  conditions  and  states.  Strong, 
clear-cut,  positive,  hopeful  thought  has  a 
stimulating  and  life-giving  effect  upon  one's 
outlook,  energies,  and  activities;  and  upon  all 
bodily  functions  and  powers.  A  falling  state 
of  the  mind  induces  a  chronically  gloomy  out- 
look and  produces  inevitably  a  falling  condi- 
tion of  the  body.  The  mind  grows,  moreover, 
into  the  likeness  of  the  thoughts  one  most 
habitually  entertains  and  lives  with.  Every 
thought  reproduces  of  its  kind. 

Says  an  authoritative  writer  in  dealing  more 
particularly  with  the  effects  of  certain  types  of 
thoughts  and  emotions  upon  bodily  conditions : 
"  Out  of  our  own  experience  we  know  that 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    69 

anger,  fear,  worry,  hate,  revenge,  avarice,  grief, 
in  fact  all  negative  and  low  emotions,  produce 
weakness  and  disturbance  not  only  in  the  mind 
but  in  the  body  as  well.  It  has  been  proved 
that  they  actually  generate  poisons  in  the  body, 
they  depress  the  circulation;  they  change  the 
quality  of  the  blood,  making  it  less  vital ;  they 
affect  the  great  nerve  centres  and  thus  par- 
tially paralyse  the  very  seat  of  the  bodily  ac- 
tivities. On  the  other  hand,  faith,  hope,  love, 
forgiveness,  joy,  and  peace,  all  such  emotions 
are  positive  and  uplifting,  and  so  act  on  the 
body  as  to  restore  and  maintain  harmony  and 
actually  to  stimulate  the  circulation  and  nutri- 
tion." 

The  one  who  does  not  allow  himself  to  be  in- 
fluenced or  controlled  by  fears  or  forebodings 
is  the  one  who  ordinarily  does  not  yield  to 
discouragements.  He  it  is  who  is  using  the 
positive,  success-bringing  types  of  thought  that 
are  continually  working  for  him  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  ends.  The  things  that  he  sees 
in  the  ideal,  his  strong,  positive,  and  therefore 
creative  type  of  thought,  is  continually  help- 
ing to  actualise  in  the  realm  of  the  real. 

We  sometimes  speak  lightly  of  ideas,  but  this 
world  would  be  indeed  a  sorry  place  in  which 
to  live  were  it  not  for  ideas — and  were  it  not 
for  ideals.  Every  piece  of  mechanism  that  has 
ever  been  built,  if  we  trace  back  far  enough, 


70    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

was  first  merely  an  idea  in  some  man's  or  / 
woman's  mind.  Every  structure  or  edifice  that 
has  ever  been  reared  had  form  first  in  this 
same  immaterial  realm.  So  every  great  under- 
taking of  whatever  nature  had  its  inception,  its 
origin,  in  the  realm  of  the  immaterial — at  least 
as  we  at  present  call  it — before  it  was  em- 
bodied and  stood  forth  in  material  form. 

It  is  well,  then,  that  we  have  our  ideas  and 
our  ideals.  It  is  well,  even,  to  build  castles  in 
the  air,  if  we  follow  these  up  and  give  them 
material  clothing  or  structure,  so  that  they 
become  castles  on  the  ground.  Occasionally  it 
is  true  that  these  may  shrink  or,  rather,  may 
change  their  form  and  become  cabins;  but 
many  times  we  find  that  an  expanded  vision 
and  an  expanded  experience  lead  us  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  fact  that,  so  far  as  happiness  and 
satisfaction  are  concerned,  the  contents  of  a 
cabin  may  outweigh  many  times  those  of  the 
castle. 

Successful  men  and  women  are  almost  in- 
variably those  possessing  to  a  supreme  degree 
the  element  of  faith.  Faith,  absolute,  uncon- 
querable faith,  is  one  of  the  essential  con- 
comitants, therefore  one  of  the  great  secrets  of 
success.  We  must  realise,  and  especially  valu- 
able is  it  for  young  men  and  women  to  realise, 
that  one  carries  his  success  or  his  failure  with 
him,  that  it  does  not  depend  upon  outside 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    71 

conditions.  There  are  some  that  no  circum- 
stances or  combinations  of  circumstances  can 
thwart  or  keep  down.  Let  circumstance  seem 
to  thwart  or  circumvent  them  in  one  direction, 
and  almost  instantly  they  are  going  forward 
along  another  direction.  Circumstance  is  kept 
busy  keeping  up  with  them.  When  she  meets 
such,  after  a  few  trials,  she  apparently  de- 
cides to  give  up  and  turn  her  attention  to  those 
of  the  less  positive,  the  less  forceful,  therefore 
the  less  determined,  types  of  mind  and  of  life. 
Circumstance  has  received  some  hard  knocks 
from  men  and  women  of  this  type.  She  has 
grown  naturally  timid  and  will  always  back 
down  whenever  she  recognises  a  mind,  and 
therefore  a  life,  of  sufficient  force. 

To  make  the  best  of  whatever  present  con- 
ditions are,  to  form  and  clearly  to  see  one's 
ideal,  though  it  may  seem  far  distant  and  al- 
most impossible,  to  believe  in  it,  and  to  believe 
in  one's  ability  to  actualise  it — this  is  the  first 
essential.  Not,  then,  to  sit  and  idly  fold  the 
hands,  expecting  it  to  actualise  itself,  but  to 
take  hold  of  the  first  thing  that  offers  itself 
to  do, — that  lies  sufficiently  along  the  way, — to 
do  this  faithfully,  believing,  knowing,  that  it 
is  but  the  step  that  will  lead  to  the  next  best 
thing,  and  this  to  the  next;  this  is  the  second 
and  the  completing  stage  of  all  accomplish- 
ment. 


72    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

We  speak  of  fate  many  times  as  if  it  were 
something  foreign  to  or  outside  of  ourselves, 
forgetting  that  fate  awaits  always  our  own 
conditions.  A  man  decides  his  own  fate 
through  the  types  of  thoughts  he  entertains 
and  gives  a  dominating  influence  in  his  life. 
He  sits  at  the  helm  of  his  thought  world  and, 
guiding,  decides  his  own  fate,  or,  through  nega- 
tive, vacillating,  and  therefore  weakening 
thought,  he  drifts,  and  fate  decides  him.  Fate 
is  not  something  that  takes  form  and  domi- 
nates us  irrespective  of  any  say  on  our  own 
part.  Through  a  knowledge  and  an  intelli- 
gent and  determined  use  of  the  silent  but  ever- 
working  power  of  thought  we  either  condition 
circumstances,  or,  lacking  this  knowledge  or 
failing  to  apply  it,  we  accept  the  role  of  a 
conditioned  circumstance.  It  is  a  help  some- 
times to  realise  and  to  voice  with  Henley: 

Out  of  the  night  that  covers  me, 

Black  as  the  pit  from  pole  to  pole, 
I  thank  whatever  gods  may  be 
For  my  unconquerable  soul. 

The  thoughts  that  we  entertain  not  only  de- 
termine the  conditions  of  our  own  immediate 
lives,  but  they  influence,  perhaps  in  a  much 
more  subtle  manner  than  most  of  us  realise, 
our  relations  with  and  our  influence  upon  those 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    73 

with  whom  we  associate  or  even  come  into 
contact.  All  are  influenced,  even  though  un- 
consciously, by  them. 

Thoughts  of  good  will,  sympathy,  magna- 
nimity, good  cheer — in  brief,  all  thoughts 
emanating  from  a  spirit  of  love — are  felt  in 
their  positive,  warming,  and  stimulating  influ- 
ences by  others ;  they  inspire  in  turn  the  same 
types  of  thoughts  and  feelings  in  them,  and 
they  come  back  to  us  laden  with  their  en- 
nobling, stimulating,  pleasure-bringing  influ- 
ences. 

Thoughts  of  envy,  or  malice,  or  hatred,  or  ill 
will  are  likewise  felt  by  others.  They  are  in- 
fluenced adversely  by  them.  They  inspire 
either  the  same  types  of  thoughts  and  emotions 
in  them;  or  they  produce  in  them  a  certain 
type  of  antagonistic  feeling  that  has  the  tend- 
ency to  neutralise  and,  if  continued  for  a 
sufficient  length  of  time,  deaden  sympathy  and 
thereby  all  friendly  relations. 

We  have  heard  much  of  "  personal  mag- 
netism." Careful  analysis  will,  I  think,  reveal 
the  fact  that  the  one  who  has  to  any  marked 
degree  the  element  of  personal  magnetism  is 
one  of  the  large-hearted,  magnanimous,  cheer- 
bringing,  unself-centred  types,  whose  positive 
thought  forces  are  being  continually  felt  by 
others,  and  are  continually  inspiring  and  call- 
ing forth  from  others  these  same  splendid  at- 


74    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

tributes.  I  have  yet  to  find  any  one,  man  or 
woman,  of  the  opposite  habits  and,  therefore, 
trend  of  mind  and  heart  who  has  had  or  who 
has  even  to  the  slightest  perceptible  degree  the 
quality  that  we  ordinarily  think  of  when  we 
use  the  term  "  personal  magnetism." 

If  one  would  have  friends  he  or  she  must  be 
a  friend,  must  radiate  habitually  friendly,  help- 
ful thoughts,  good  will,  love.  The  one  who 
doesn't  cultivate  the  hopeful,  cheerful,  uncom- 
plaining, good-will  attitude  toward  life  and 
toward  others  becomes  a  drag,  making  life 
harder  for  others  as  well  as  for  one's  self. 

Ordinarily  we  find  in  people  the  qualities  we 
are  mostly  looking  for,  or  the  qualities  that 
our  own  prevailing  characteristics  call  forth. 
The  larger  the  nature,  the  less  critical  and 
cynical  it  is,  the  more  it  is  given  to  looking  for 
the  best  and  the  highest  in  others,  and  the  less, 
therefore,  is  it  given  to  gossip. 

It  was  Jeremy  Bentham  who  said :  "  In  order 
to  love  mankind,  we  must  not  expect  too  much 
of  them."  And  Goethe  had  a  still  deeper 
vision  when  he  said :  "  Who  is  the  happiest 
of  men?  He  who  values  the  merits  of  others, 
and  in  their  pleasure  takes  joy,  even  as  though 
it  were  his  own." 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  gossip  is  that 
he  or  she  prefers  to  live  in  the  low-lying 
miasmic  strata  of  life,  revelling  in  the  nega- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    75 

tives  of  life  and  taking  joy  in  finding  and  ped- 
dling about  the  findings  that  he  or  she  natu- 
rally makes  there.  The  larger  natures  see  the 
good  and  sympathise  with  the  weaknesses  and 
the  frailties  of  others.  They  realise  also  that  it 
is  so  consummately  inconsistent — many  times 
even  humorously  inconsistent — for  one  also 
with  weaknesses,  frailties,  and  faults,  though 
perhaps  of  a  little  different  character,  to  sit 
in  judgment  of  another.  Gossip  concerning 
the  errors  or  shortcomings  of  another  is  judg- 
ing another.  The  one  who  is  himself  perfect  is 
the  one  who  has  the  right  to  judge  another. 
By  a  strange  law,  however,  though  by  a  natural 
law,  we  find,  as  we  understand  life  in  its  funda- 
mentals better,  such  a  person  is  seldom  if  ever 
given  to  judging,  much  less  to  gossip. 

Life  becomes  rich  and  expansive  through 
sympathy,  good  will,  and  good  cheer;  not 
through  cynicism  or  criticism.  That  splendid 
little  poem  of  but  a  single  stanza  by  Edwin 
Markham,  "  Outwitted,"  points  after  all  to  one 
of  life's  fundamentals: 

He  drew  a  circle  that  shut  me  out — 
Heretic,  rebel,  a  thing  to  flout, 
But  Love  and  I  had  the  wit  to  win : 
We  drew  a  circle  that  took  him  in! 


VI 


JESUS  THE  SUPREME  EXPONENT  OF  THE 

INNER    FORCES    AND    POWERS:    HIS 

PEOPLE'S  RELIGION  AND  THEIR 

CONDITION 

In  order  to  have  any  true  or  adequate  under- 
standing of  what  the  real  revelation  and  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  were,  two  things  must  be  borne 
in  mind.  It  is  necessary  in  the  first  place, 
not  only  to  have  a  knowledge  of,  but  always 
to  bear  in  mind  the  method,  the  medium 
through  which  the  account  of  his  life  has  come 
down  to  us.  Again,  before  the  real  content 
and  significance  of  Jesus'  revelation  and  teach- 
ings can  be  intelligently  understood,  it  is  nec- 
essary that  we  have  a  knowledge  of  the  con- 
ditions of  the  time  in  which  he  lived  and  of 
the  people  to  whom  he  spoke,  to  whom  his 
revelation  was  made. 

To  any  one  who  has  even  a  rudimentary 
knowledge  of  the  former,  it  becomes  apparent 
at  once  that  no  single  saying  or  statement  of 
Jesus  can  be  taken  to  indicate  either  his  rev- 
elation or  his  purpose.  These  must  be  made 
to  depend  upon  not  any  single  statement  or 
76 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    77 

saying  of  his  own,  much  less  anything  re- 
ported about  him  by  another;  but  it  must  be 
made  to  depend  rather  upon  the  whole  tenor 
of  his  teachings. 

Jesus  put  nothing  in  writing.  There  was 
no  one  immediately  at  hand  to  make  a  record 
of  any  of  his  teachings  or  any  of  his  acts. 
It  is  now  well  known  that  no  one  of  the  gos- 
pels was  written  by  an  immediate  hearer,  by 
an  eye-witness. 

The  Gospel  of  Mark,  the  oldest  gospel,  or 
in  other  words  the  one  written  nearest  to 
Jesus'  time,  was  written  some  forty  years 
after  he  had  finished  his  work.  Matthew  and 
Luke,  taken  to  a  great  extent  from  the  Gospel 
of  Mark,  supplemented  by  one  or  two  addi- 
tional sources,  were  written  many  years  after. 
The  Gospel  of  John  was  not  written  until  after 
the  beginning  of  the  second  century  after 
Christ.  These  four  sets  of  chronicles,  called 
the  Gospels,  written  independently  one  of 
another,  were  then  collected  many  years  after 
their  authors  were  dead,  and  still  a  great  deal 
later  were  brought  together  into  a  single  book. 

The  following  concise  statement  by  Pro- 
fessor Henry  Drummond  throws  much  light 
upon  the  way  the  New  Testament  portions  of 
our  Bible  took  form :  "  The  Bible  is  not  a 
book;  it  is  a  library.  It  consists  of  sixty-six 
books.  It  is  a  great  convenience,  but  in  some 


78    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

respects  a  great  misfortune,  that  these  books 
have  always  been  bound  up  together  and  given 
out  as  one  book  to  the  world,  when  they  are 
not;  because  that  has  led  to  endless  mistakes 
in  theology  and  practical  life.  These  books, 
which  make  up  this  library,  written  at  inter- 
vals of  hundreds  of  years,  were  collected  after 
the  last  of  the  writers  was  dead — long  after — 
by  human  hands.  Where  were  the  books? 
Take  the  New  Testament.  There  were  four 
lives  of  Christ.  One  was  in  Rome;  one  was 
in  Southern  Italy;  one  was  in  Palestine;  one 
in  Asia  Minor.  There  were  twenty-one  letters. 
Five  were  in  Greece  and  Macedonia;  five  in 
Asia;  one  in  Rome.  The  rest  were  in  the 
pockets  of  private  individuals.  Theophilus 
had  Acts.  They  were  collected  undesignedly. 
In  the  third  century  the  New  Testament  con- 
sisted of  the  following  books:  The  four  Gos- 
pels, Acts,  thirteen  letters  of  Paul,  I  John,  I 
Peter;  and,  in  addition,  the  Epistles  of  Bar- 
nabas and  Hennas.  This  was  not  called  the 
New  Testament,  but  the  Christian  Library. 
Then  these  last  books  were  discarded.  They 
ceased  to  be  regarded  as  upon  the  same  level 
as  the  others.  In  the  fourth  century  the  canon 
was  closed — that  is  to  say,  a  list  was  made  up 
of  the  books  which  were  to  be  regarded  as 
canonical.  And  then  long  after  that  they 
were  stitched  together  and  made  up  into  one 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    79 

book — hundreds  of  years  after  that.  Who  made 
up  the  complete  list?  It  was  never  formally 
made  up.  The  bishops  of  the  different 
churches  would  draw  up  a  list  each  of  the  books 
that  they  thought  ought  to  be  put  into  this 
Testament.  The  churches  also  would  give 
their  opinions.  Sometimes  councils  would 
meet  and  talk  it  over — discuss  it.  Scholars 
like  Jerome  would  investigate  the  authenticity 
of  the  different  documents,  and  there  came  to 
be  a  general  consensus  of  the  churches  on  the 
matter." 

Jesus  spoke  in  his  own  native  language,  the 
Aramaic.  His  sayings  were  then  rendered 
into  Greek,  and,  as  is  well  known  by  all  well- 
versed  Biblical  scholars,  it  was  not  an  espe- 
cially high  order  of  Greek.  The  New  Testa- 
ment scriptures  including  the  four  gospels, 
were  then  many  hundreds  of  years  afterwards 
translated  from  the  Greek  into  our  modern 
languages — English,  German,  French,  Swed- 
ish, or  whatever  the  language  of  the  particu- 
lar translation  may  be.  Those  who  know 
anything  of  the  matter  of  translation  know 
how  difficult  it  is  to  render  the  exact  meanings 
of  any  statements  or  writing  into  another  lan- 
guage. The  rendering  of  a  single  word  may 
sometimes  mean,  or  rather  may  make  a  great 
difference  in  the  thought  of  the  one  giving 
the  utterance.  How  much  greater  is  this  lia- 


8o    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

bility  when  the  thing  thus  rendered  is  twice 
removed  from  its  original  source  and  form! 

The  original  manuscripts  had  no  punctua- 
tion and  no  verse  divisions;  these  were  all 
arbitrarily  supplied  by  the  translators  later  on. 
It  is  also  a  well-established  fact  on  the  part 
of  leading  Biblical  scholars  that  through  the 
centuries  there  have  been  various  interpola- 
tions in  the  New  Testament  scriptures,  both 
by  way  of  omissions  and  additions. 

Reference  is  made  to  these  various  facts  in 
connection  with  the  sayings  and  the  teachings 
of  Jesus  and  the  methods  and  the  media 
through  which  they  have  come  down  to  us, 
to  show  how  impossible  it  would  be  to  base 
Jesus'  revelation  or  purpose  upon  any  single 
utterance  made  or  purported  to  be  made  by 
him — to  indicate,  in  other  words,  that  to  get 
at  his  real  message,  his  real  teachings,  and  his 
real  purpose,  we  must  find  the  binding  thread 
if  possible,  the  reiterated  statement,  the  re- 
peated purpose  that  makes  them  throb  with 
the  living  element. 

Again,  no  intelligent  understanding  of  Jesus' 
revelation  or  ministry  can  be  had  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  the  time,  and 
of  the  people  to  whom  his  revelation  was 
made,  among  whom  he  lived  and  worked;  for 
his  ministry  had  in  connection  with  it  both  a 
time  element  and  an  eternal  element.  There 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    81 

are  two  things  that  must  be  noted,  the  moral 
and  religious  condition  of  the  people;  and, 
again,  their  economic  and  political  status. 

The  Jewish  people  had  been  preeminently 
a  religious  people.  But  a  great  change  had 
taken  place.  Religion  was  at  its  lowest  ebb. 
Its  spirit  was  well-nigh  dead,  and  in  its  place 
there  had  gradually  come  into  being  a  Phara- 
saic  legalism — a  religion  of  form,  ceremony. 
An  extensive  system  of  ecclesiastical  tradition, 
ecclesiastical  law  and  observances,  which  had 
gradually  robbed  the  people  of  all  their  former 
spirit  of  religion,  had  been  gradually  built  up 
by  those  in  ecclesiastical  authority. 

The  voice  of  that  illustrious  line  of  Hebrew 
prophets  had  ceased  to  speak.  It  was  close  to 
two  hundred  years  since  the  voice  of  a  living 
prophet  had  been  heard.  Tradition  had  taken 
its  place.  It  took  the  form:  Moses  hath  said; 
It  has  been  said  of  old ;  The  prophet  hath  said. 
The  scribe  was  the  keeper  of  the  ecclesiastical 
law.  The  lawyer  was  its  interpreter. 

The  Pharisees  had  gradually  elevated  them- 
selves into  an  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  who  were 
the  custodians  of  the  law  and  religion.  They 
had  come  to  regard  themselves  as  especially 
favoured,  a  privileged  class — not  only  the  cus- 
todians but  the  dispensers  of  all  religious 
knowledge — and  therefore  of  religion.  The 
people,  in  their  estimation,  were  of  a  lower  in- 


82    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

tellectual  and  religious  order,  possessing  no 
capabilities  in  connection  with  religion  or 
morals,  dependent  therefore  upon  their  su- 
periors in  these  matters. 

This  state  of  affairs  that  had  gradually  come 
about  was  productive  of  two  noticeable  results : 
a  religious  starvation  and  stagnation  on  the 
part  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  creation  of  a  haughty,  self- 
righteous  and  domineering  ecclesiastical 
hierarchy  on  the  other.  In  order  for  a  clear 
understanding  of  some  of  Jesus'  sayings  and 
teachings,  some  of  which  constitute  a  very 
vital  part  of  his  ministry,  it  is  necessary  to 
understand  clearly  what  this  condition  was. 

Another  important  fact  that  sheds  much 
light  upon  the  nature  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus 
is  to  be  found,  as  has  already  been  intimated, 
in  the  political  and  the  economic  condition  of 
the  people  of  the  time.  The  Jewish  nation 
had  been  subjugated  and  were  under  the  domi- 
nation of  Rome.  Rome  in  connection  with 
Israel,  as  in  connection  with  all  conquered 
peoples,  was  a  hard  master.  Taxes  and  trib- 
ute, tribute  and  taxes,  could  almost  be  said  to 
be  descriptive  of  her  administration  of  affairs. 

She  was  already  in  her  degenerate  stage. 
Never  perhaps  in  the  history  of  the  world 
had  men  been  so  ruled  by  selfishness,  greed, 
military  power  and  domination,  and  the  pomp 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    83 

and  display  of  material  wealth.  Luxury,  in- 
dulgence, over-indulgence,  vice.  The  inevi- 
table concomitant  followed — a  continually  in- 
creasing moral  and  physical  degeneration. 
An  increasing  luxury  and  indulgence  called 
for  an  increasing  means  to  satisfy  them.  Mes- 
sengers were  sent  and  additional  tribute  was 
levied.  Pontius  Pilate  was  the  Roman  ad- 
ministrative head  or  governor  in  Judea  at  the 
time.  Tiberius  Caesar  was  the  Roman  Em- 
peror. 

Rome  at  this  time  consisted  of  a  few  thou- 
sand nobles  and  people  of  station — freemen — 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  slaves.  Even 
her  campaigns  in  time  became  virtual  raids 
for  plunder.  She  conquered — and  she  plun- 
dered those  whom  she  conquered.  Great  num- 
bers from  among  the  conquered  peoples  were 
regularly  taken  to  Rome  and  sold  into  slavery. 
Judea  had  not  escaped  this.  Thousands  of 
her  best  people  had  been  transported  to  Rome 
and  sold  into  slavery.  It  was  never  known 
where  the  blow  would  fall  next;  what  homes 
would  be  desolated  and  both  sons  and  daugh- 
ters sent  away  into  slavery.  No  section,  no 
family  could  feel  any  sense  of  security.  A 
feeling  of  fear,  a  sense  of  desolation  pervaded 
everywhere. 

There  was  a  tradition,  which  had  grown 
into  a  well-defined  belief,  that  a  Deliverer 


84    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

would  be  sent  them,  that  they  would  be  de- 
livered out  of  the  hands  of  their  enemies  and 
that  their  oppressors  would  in  turn  be  brought 
to  grief.  There  was  also  in  the  section  round 
about  Judaea  a  belief,  which  had  grown  until 
it  had  become  well-nigh  universal,  that  the 
end  of  the  world,  or  the  end  of  the  age,  was 
speedily  coming,  that  then  tnere  would  be  an 
end  of  all  earthly  government  and  that  the 
reign  of  Jehovah — the  kingdom  of  God — would 
be  established.  These  two  beliefs  went  hand 
in  hand.  They  were  kept  continually  before 
the  people,  and  now  and  then  received  a  fresh 
impetus  by  the  appearance  of  a  new  prophet 
or  a  new  teacher,  whom  the  people  went 
gladly  out  to  hear.  Of  this  kind  was  John, 
the  son  of  a  priest,  later  called  John  the 
Baptist. 

After  his  period  of  preparation,  he  came  out 
of  the  wilderness  of  Judaea,  and  in  the  region 
about  the  Jordan  with  great  power  and  per- 
suasiveness, according  to  the  accounts,  he 
gave  utterance  to  the  message:  Repent  ye, 
for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand.  For- 
sake all  earthly  things;  they  will  be  of  avail 
but  a  very  short  time  now,  turn  ye  from  them 
and  prepare  yourselves  for  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  The  old  things  will  speedily 
pass  away ;  all  things  will  become  new.  Many 
went  out  to  hear  him  and  were  powerfully 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    85 

appealed  to  by  the  earnest,  rugged  utterances 
of  this  new  preacher  of  righteousness  and  re- 
pentance. 

His  name  and  his  message  spread  through 
all  the  land  of  Judea  and  the  country  around 
the  Jordan.  Many  were  baptised  by  him 
there,  he  making  use  of  this  symbolic  service 
which  had  been  long  in  use  by  certain  branches 
of  the  Jewish  people,  especially  the  order  of 
the  Essenes. 

Among  those  who  went  out  to  hear  John 
and  who  accepted  baptism  at  his  hands  was 
Jesus,  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  whose 
home  was  at  Nazareth.  It  marks  also  the  be- 
ginning of  his  own  public  ministry,  for  which 
he  evidently  had  been  in  preparation  for  a 
considerable  time. 

It  seems  strange  that  we  know  so  little  of 
the  early  life  of  one  destined  to  exert  such  a 
powerful  influence  upon  the  thought  and  the 
life  of  the  world.  In  the  gospel  of  Mark, 
probably  the  most  reliable,  because  the  near- 
est to  his  time,  there  is  no  mention  whatever 
of  his  early  life.  The  first  account  is  where 
he  appears  at  John's  meetings.  Almost  im- 
mediately thereafter  begins  his  own  public 
ministry. 

In  the  gospel  of  Luke  we  have  a  very 
meagre  account  of  him.  It  is  at  the  age  of 
twelve.  The  brief  account  gives  us  a  glimpse 


86    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

into  the  lives  of  his  father  and  his  mother, 
Joseph  and  Mary;  showing  that  at  that  time 
they  were  not  looked  upon  as  in  any  way 
different  from  all  of  the  inhabitants  of  their 
little  community,  Nazareth,  the  little  town  in 
Galilee — having  a  family  of  several  sons  and 
daughters,  and  that  Jesus,  the  eldest  of  the 
family,  grew  in  stature  and  in  knowledge,  as 
all  the  neighbouring  children  grew;  but  that 
he,  even  at  an  early  age,  showed  that  he  had 
a  wonderful  aptitude  for  the  things  of  the 
spirit.  I  reproduce  Luke's  brief  account  here : 
"  Now,  his  parents  went  to  Jerusalem  every 
year  at  the  feast  of  the  passover.  And  when 
he  was  twelve  years  old,  they  went  up  to 
Jerusalem,  after  the  custom  of  the  feast.  And 
when  they  had  fulfilled  the  days,  as  they  re- 
turned, the  child  Jesus  tarried  behind  in  Jeru- 
salem: and  Joseph  and  his  mother  knew  not 
of  it.  But  they,  supposing  him  to  have  been 
in  the  company,  went  a  day's  journey;  and 
they  sought  him  among  their  kinsfolk  and 
acquaintances.  And  when  they  found  him 
not,  they  turned  back  again  to  Jerusalem, 
seeking  him.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  after 
three  days  they  found  him  in  the  temple,  sit- 
ting in  the  midst  of  the  doctors,  both  hearing 
them  and  asking  them  questions.  And  all 
that  heard  him  were  astonished  at  his  under- 
standing and  answers. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    87 

"  And  when  they  saw  him  they  were 
amazed:  and  his  mother  said  unto  him,  Son, 
why  hast  thou  thus  dealt  with  us?  Behold, 
thy  father  and  I  have  sought  thee  sorrowing. 
And  he  said  unto  them,  How  is  it  that  ye 
sought  me?  Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about 
my  father's  business?  And  they  understood 
not  the  saying  which  he  spake  unto  them. 
And  he  went  down  with  them,  and  came  to 
Nazareth,  and  was  subject  unto  them:  but  his 
mother  kept  all  these  sayings  in  her  heart. 
And  Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature, 
and  in  favour  with  God  and  man." 

Nothing  could  be  more  interesting  than  to 
know  the  early  life  of  Jesus.  There  are 
various  theories  as  to  how  this  was  spent,  that 
is,  as  to  what  his  preparation  was — the  facts 
of  his  life,  in  addition  to  his  working  with  his 
father  at  his  trade,  that  of  a  carpenter ;  but  we 
know  nothing  that  has  the  stamp  of  historical 
accuracy  upon  it.  Of  his  entire  life,  indeed, 
including  the  period  of  his  active  ministry, 
from  thirty  to  nearly  thirty-three,  it  is  but  fair 
to  presume  that  we  have  at  best  but  a  frag- 
mentary account  in  the  Gospel  narratives.  It 
is  probable  that  many  things  connected  with 
his  ministry,  and  many  of  his  sayings  and 
teachings,  we  have  no  record  of  at  all. 

It  is  probable  that  in  connection  with  his 
preparation  he  spent  a  great  deal  of  time 


88    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

alone,  in  the  quiet,  in  communion  with  his 
Divine  Source,  or  as  the  term  came  so  nat- 
urally to  him,  with  God,  his  Father — God,  our 
Father,  for  that  was  his  teaching — my  God 
and  your  God.  The  many  times  that  we  are 
told  in  the  narratives  that  he  went  to  the 
mountain  alone,  would  seem  to  justify  us  in 
this  conclusion.  Anyway,  it  would  be  abso- 
lutely impossible  for  anyone  to  have  such  a 
vivid  realisation  of  his  essential  oneness  with 
the  Divine,  without  much  time  spent  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  real  life  could  evolve  into  its 
Divine  likeness,  and  then  mould  the  outer  life 
according  to  this  ideal  or  pattern. 


VII 


THE    DIVINE    RULE    IN    THE    MIND    AND 

HEART:  THE  UNESSENTIALS  WE  DROP 

—THE  SPIRIT  ABIDES 

That  Jesus  had  a  supreme  aptitude  for  the 
things  of  the  spirit,  there  can  be  no  question. 
That  through  desire  and  through  will  he  fol- 
lowed the  leadings  of  the  spirit — that  he 
gave  himself  completely  to  its  leadings — 
is  evident  both  from  his  utterances  and  his 
life.  It  was  this  combination  undoubtedly 
that  led  him  into  that  vivid  sense  of  his  life 
in  God,  which  became  so  complete  that  he 
afterwards  speaks — I  and  my  Father  are  one. 
That  he  was  always,  however,  far  from  iden- 
tifying himself  as  equal  with  God  is  indicated 
by  his  constant  declaration  of  his  dependence 
upon  God.  Again  and  again  we  have  these 
declarations :  "  My  meat  and  drink  is  to  do 
the  will  of  God."  "  My  doctrine  is  not  mine, 
but  his  that  sent  me."  "  I  can  of  myself  do 
nothing:  as  I  hear  I  judge;  and  my  judgment 
is  righteous;  because  I  seek  not  mine  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me." 

And  even  the  very  last  acts  and  words  of 
89 


go    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

his  life  proclaim  this  constant  sense  of  de- 
pendence for  guidance,  for  strength,  and  even 
for  succour.  With  all  his  Divine  self-realisa- 
tion there  was  always,  moreover,  that  sense 
of  humility  that  is  always  a  predominating 
characteristic  of  the  really  great.  "  Why  call- 
est  thou  me  good?  There  is  none  good  but 
one — that  is  God." 

It  is  not  at  all  strange,  therefore,  that  the 
very  first  utterance  of  his  public  ministry, 
according  to  the  chronicler  Mark  was:  The 
Kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand:  repent  ye,  and 
believe  the  gospel.  And  while  this  was  the 
beginning  utterance,  it  was  the  keynote  that 
ran  through  his  entire  ministry.  It  is  the 
basic  fact  of  all  his  teachings.  The  realisation 
of  his  own  life  he  sought  to  make  the  realisa- 
tion of  all  others.  It  was,  it  is,  a  call  to  right- 
eousness, and  a  call  to  righteousness  through 
the  only  channel  that  any  such  call  can  be 
effective — through  a  realisation  of  the  essen- 
tial righteousness  and  goodness  of  the  human 
soul. 

An  unbiased  study  of  Jesus'  own  words  will 
reveal  the  fact  that  he  taught  only  what  he 
himself  had  first  realised.  It  is  this,  moreover, 
that  makes  him  the  supreme  teacher  of  all 
time — Counsellor,  Friend,  Saviour.  »  It  is  the 
saving  of  men  from  their  lower  conceptions 
and  selves,  a  lifting  of  them  up  to  their  higher 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    91 

selves,  which,  as  he  taught,  is  eternally  one 
with  God,  the  Father,  and  which,  when  real- 
ised, will  inevitably,  reflexly,  one  might  say, 
lift  a  man's  thoughts,  acts,  conduct — the  en- 
tire life — up  to  that  standard  or  pattern.  It 
is  thus  that  the  Divine  ideal,  that  the  Christ 
becomes  enthroned  within.  The  Christ-con- 
sciousness is  the  universal  Divine  nature  in 
us.  It  is  the  state  of  God-consciousness.  It 
is  the  recognition  of  the  indwelling  Divine  life 
as  the  source,  and  therefore  the  essence  of  our 
own  lives. 

Jesus  came  as  the  revealer  of  a  new  truth, 
a  new  conception  of  man.  Indeed,  the  Mes- 
siah. He  came  as  the  revealer  of  the  only 
truth  that  could  lead  his  people  out  of  their 
trials  and  troubles — out  of  their  bondage. 
They  were  looking  for  their  Deliverer  to  come 
in  the  person  of  a  worldly  king  and  to  set  up 
his  rule  as  such.  He  came  in  the  person  of  a 
humble  teacher,  the  revealer  of  a  mighty  truth, 
the  revealer  of  the  Way,  the  only  way 
whereby  real  freedom  and  deliverance  can 
come.  For  those  who  would  receive  him,  he 
was  indeed  the  Messiah.  For  those  who 
would  not,  he  was  not,  and  the  same  holds 
today. 

He  came  as  the  revealer  of  a  truth  which 
had  been  glimpsed  by  many  inspired  teachers 
among  the  Jewish  race  and  among  those  of 


§2    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

other  races.  The  time  waited,  however,  for 
one  to  come  who  would  first  embody  this 
truth  and  then  be  able  effectively  to  teach  it. 
This  was  done  in  a  supreme  degree  by  the 
Judaean  Teacher.  He  came  not  as  the  doer- 
away  with  the  Law  and  the  Prophets,  but 
rather  to  regain  and  then  to  supplement  them. 
Such  was  his  own  statement. 

It  is  time  to  ascend  another  round.  I  reveal 
God  to  you,  not  in  the  Tabernacle,  but  in  the 
human  heart — then  in  the  Tabernacle  in  the 
degree  that  He  is  in  the  hearts  of  those  who 
frequent  the  Tabernacle.  Otherwise  the  Tab- 
ernacle becomes  a  whited  sepulchre.  The 
Church  is  not  a  building,  an  organisation,  not 
a  creed.  The  Church  is  the  Spirit  of  Truth. 
It  must  have  one  supreme  object  and  purpose 
— to  lead  men  to  the  truth.  I  reveal  what  I 
have  found — I  in  the  Father  and  the  Father 
in  me.  I  seek  not  to  do  mine  own  will,  but 
the  will  of  the  Father  who  sent  me. 

Everything  was  subordinated  to  this  Divine 
realisation  and  to  his  Divine  purpose. 

The  great  purpose  at  which  he  laboured  so 
incessantly  was  the  teaching  of  the  realisation 
of  the  Divine  will  in  the  hearts  and  minds, 
and  through  these  in  the  lives  of  men — the 
finding  and  the  realisation  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  This  is  the  supreme  fact  of  life.  Get 
right  at  the  centre  and  the  circumference  will 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    93 

then  care  for  itself.  As  is  the  inner,  so  always 
and  invariably  will  be  the  outer.  There  is  an 
inner  guide  that  regulates  the  life  when  this 
inner  guide  is  allowed  to  assume  authority. 
Why  be  disconcerted,  why  in  a  heat  concern- 
ing so  many  things?  It  is  not  the  natural  and 
the  normal  life.  Life  at  its  best  is  something 
infinitely  beyond  this.  "  Seek  ye  first  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness,  and 
all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you." 
And  if  there  is  any  doubt  in  regard  to  his  real 
meaning  in  this  here  is  his  answer :  "  Neither 
shall  they  say,  '  Lo  here '  or  '  Lo  there '  for 
behold  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  within  you." 

Again  and  again  this  is  his  call.  Again  and 
again  this  is  his  revelation.  In  the  first  three 
gospels  alone  he  uses  the  expression  "  the 
Kingdom  of  God,"  or  "the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,"  upwards  of  thirty  times.  Any  pos- 
sible reference  to  any  organisation  that  he 
might  have  had  in  mind,  can  be  found  in  the 
entire  four  gospels  but  twice. 

It  would  almost  seem  that  it  would  not  be 
difficult  to  judge  as  to  what  was  uppermost  in 
his  mind.  I  have  made  this  revelation  to  you ; 
you  must  raise  yourselves,  you  must  become 
in  reality  what  in  essence  you  really  are.  I  in 
the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me.  I  reveal 
only  what  I  myself  know.  As  I  am,  ye  shall 
be.  God  is  your  Father.  In  your  real  nature 


94    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

you  are  Divine.  Drop  your  ideas  of  the  de- 
pravity of  the  human  soul.  To  believe  it  de- 
praves. To  teach  it  depraves  the  one  who 
teaches  it,  and  the  one  who  accepts  it.  Follow 
not  the  traditions  of  men.  I  reveal  to  you 
your  Divine  Birthright.  Accept  it.  It  is  best. 
Behold  all  things  are  become  new.  The  King- 
dom of  God  is  the  one  all-inclusive  thing. 
Find  it  and  all  else  will  follow. 

"  Whereunto  shall  we  liken  the  kingdom  of 
God?  Or  with  what  comparison  shall  we 
compare  it?  It  is  like  a  grain  of  mustard  seed, 
which,  when  it  is  sown  in  the  earth,  is  less 
than  all  the  seeds  that  be  in  the  earth;  but 
when  it  is  sown,  it  groweth  up,  and  becometh 
greater  than  all  herbs,  and  shooteth  out  great 
branches;  so  that  the  fowls  of  the  air  may 
lodge  under  the  shadow  of  it."  "Whereunto 
shall  I  liken  the  kingdom  of  God?  Is  it  like 
leaven,  which  a  woman  took  and  hid  in  three 
measures  of  meal,  till  the  whole  was  leav- 
ened?" Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  channel  of  communion  be- 
tween God  your  source,  and  yourselves,  will 
lead  you,  and  will  lead  you  into  all  truth.  It 
will  become  as  a  lamp  to  your  feet,  a  guide 
that  is  always  reliable. 

To  refuse  allegiance  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Spirit  of  Truth,  is  the  real  sin,  the  only  sin 
that  cannot  be  forgiven.  Violation  of  all 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    95 

moral  and  natural  law  may  be  forgiven.  It 
will  bring  its  penalty,  for  the  violation  of  law 
carries  in  itself  its  own  penalty,  its  own  pun- 
ishment— it  is  a  part  of  law;  but  cease  the 
violation  and  the  penalty  ceases.  The  vio- 
lation registers  its  ill  effects  in  the  illness, 
the  sickness,  of  body  and  spirit.  If  the 
violation  has  been  long  continued,  these 
effects  may  remain  for  some  time;  but  the 
instant  the  violation  ceases  the  repair  will  be- 
gin, and  things  will  go  the  other  way. 

Learn  from  this  experience,  however,  that 
there  can  be  no  deliberate  violation  of,  or 
blaspheming  against  any  moral  or  natural  law. 
But  deliberately  to  refuse  obedience  to  the 
inner  guide,  the  Holy  Spirit,  constitutes  a  de- 
fiance that  eventually  puts  out  the  lamp  of 
life,  and  that  can  result  only  in  confusion  and 
darkness.  It  severs  the  ordained  relationship, 
the  connecting,  the  binding  cord,  between  the 
soul — the  self — and  its  Source.  Stagnation, 
degeneracy,  and  eventual  death  is  merely  the 
natural  sequence. 

With  this  Divine  self-realisation  the  Spirit 
assumes  control  and  mastery,  and  you  are 
saved  from  the  follies  of  error,  and  from  the 
consequences  of  error.  Repent  ye — turn  from 
your  trespasses  and  sins,  from  your  lower 
conceptions  of  life,  of  pleasure  and  of  pain, 
and  walk  in  this  way.  The  lower  propensities 


g6    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

and  desires  will  lose  their  hold  and  will  in  time 
fall  away.  You  will  be  at  first  surprised,  and 
then  dumfounded,  at  what  you  formerly  took 
for  pleasure.  True  pleasure  and  satisfaction 
go  hand  in  hand, — nor  are  there  any  bad  after 
results. 

All  genuine  pleasures  should  lead  to  more 
perfect  health,  a  greater  accretion  of  power,  a 
continually  expanding  sense  of  life  and  service. 
When  God  is  uppermost  in  the  heart,  when 
the  Divine  rule  under  the  direction  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  becomes  the  ruling  power  in  the 
life  of  the  individual,  then  the  body  and  its 
senses  are  subordinated  to  this  rule;  the  pas- 
sions become  functions  to  be  used ;  license  and 
perverted  use  give  way  to  moderation  and 
wise  use ;  and  there  are  then  no  penalties  that 
outraged  law  exacts;  satiety  gives  place  to 
satisfaction.  It  was  Edward  Carpenter  who 
said :  "  In  order  to  enjoy  life  one  must  be  a 
master  of  life — for  to  be  a  slave  to  its  incon- 
sistencies can  only  mean  torment ;  and  in  order 
to  enjoy  the  senses  one  must  be  master  of 
them.  To  dominate  the  actual  world  you 
must,  like  Archimedes,  base  your  fulcrum 
somewhere  beyond." 

It  is  not  the  use,  but  the  abuse  of  anything 
good  in  itself  that  brings  satiety,  disease,  suf- 
fering, dissatisfaction.  Nor  is  asceticism  a 
true  road  of  life.  All  things  are  for  use;  but 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    97 

all  must  be  wisely,  in  most  cases,  moderately 
used,  for  true  enjoyment.  All  functions  and 
powers  are  for  use;  but  all  must  be  brought 
under  the  domination  of  the  Spirit — the  God- 
illumined  spirit.  This  is  the  road  that  leads 
to  heaven  here  and  heaven  hereafter — and  we 
can  rest  assured  that  we  will  never  find  a 
heaven  hereafter  that  we  do  not  make  while 
here.  Through  everything  runs  this  teaching 
of  the  Master. 

How  wonderfully  and  how  masterfully  and 
simply  he  sets  forth  h'is  whole  teaching  of  sin 
and  the  sinner  and  his  relation  to  the  Father  in 
that  marvellous  parable,  the  Parable  of  the 
Prodigal  Son.  To  bring  it  clearly  to  mind 
again  it  runs: 

"  A  certain  man  had  two  sons :  and  the 
younger  of  them  said  to  his  father,  Father, 
give  me  the  portion  of  goods  that  falleth  to 
me.  And  he  divided  unto  them  his  living. 
And  not  many  days  after  the  younger  son 
gathered  all  together,  and  took  his  journey  to 
a  far  country,  and  there  wasted  his  substance 
with  riotous  living.  And  when  he  had  spent 
all,  there  arose  a  mighty  famine  in  that  land; 
and  he  began  to  be  in  want.  And  he  went  and 
joined  himself  to  a  citizen  of  that  country ;  and 
he  sent  him  into  his  fields  to  feed  swine.  And 
he  would  fain  have  filled  his  belly  with  the 
husks  that  the  swine  did  eat :  and  no  man  gave 


g8    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

unto  him.  And  when  he  came  to  himself,  he 
said,  How  many  hired  servants  of  my  father's 
have  bread  enough  and  to  spare,  and  I  perish 
with  hunger !  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father, 
and  will  say  unto  him,  Father,  I  have  sinned 
against  heaven,  and  before  thee,  and  am  no 
more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son:  make  me 
as  one  of  thy  hired  servants.  And  he  arose 
and  came  to  his  father. 

"  But  when  he  was  yet  a  great  way  off,  his 
father  saw  him,  and  had  compassion,  and  ran, 
and  fell  upon  his  neck,  and  kissed  him.  And 
the  son  said  unto  him,  Father,  I  have  sinned 
against  heaven,  and  in  thy  sight,  and  am  no 
more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son.  But  the 
father  said  to  his  servants,  Bring  forth  the  best 
robe  and  put  it  on  him ;  and  put  a  ring  on  his 
hand,  and  shoes  on  his  feet:  and  bring  hither 
the  fatted  calf,  and  kill  it;  and  let  us  eat,  and 
be  merry;  for  this  my  son  was  dead,  and  is 
alive  again;  he  was  lost,  and  is  found.  And 
they  began  to  be  merry.  Now  his  elder  son 
was  in  the  field:  and  as  he  came  and  drew 
nigh  to  the  house,  he  heard  music  and  dancing. 
And  he  called  one  of  the  servants,  and  asked 
what  these  things  meant.  And  he  said  unto 
him,  Thy  brother  is  come ;  and  thy  father  hath 
killed  the  fatted  calf,  because  he  hath  received 
him  safe  and  sound.  And  he  was  angry  and 
would  not  go  in:  therefore  came  his  father 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    99 

out,  and  entreated  him,  and  he  answering  said 
to  his  father,  Lo,  these  many  years  do  I  serve 
thee,  neither  transgressed  I  at  any  time  thy 
commandment;  and  yet  thou  never  gavest  me 
a  kid,  that  I  might  make  merry  with  my 
friends :  but  as  soon  as  this  thy  son  was  come, 
which  hath  devoured  thy  living  with  harlots, 
thou  hast  killed  for  him  the  fatted  calf.  And 
he  said  unto  him,  Son,  thou  art  ever  with  me, 
and  all  that  I  have  is  thine.  It  was  meet  that 
we  should  make  merry,  and  be  glad:  for  this 
thy  brother  was  dead,  and  is  alive  again;  and 
was  lost,  and  is  found." 

It  does  away  forever  in  all  thinking  minds 
with  any  participation  of  Jesus  in  that  per- 
verted and  perverting  doctrine  that  man  is  by 
nature  essentially  depraved,  degraded,  fallen, 
in  the  sense  as  was  given  to  the  world  long, 
long  after  his  time  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall 
of  Man,  and  the  need  of  redemption  through 
some  external  source  outside  of  himself,  in 
distinction  from  the  truth  that  he  revealed 
that  was  to  make  men  free — the  truth  of  their 
Divine  nature,  and  this  love  of  man  by  the 
Heavenly  Father,  and  the  love  of  the  Heavenly 
Father  by  His  children. 

To  connect  Jesus  with  any  such  thought  or 
teaching  would  be  to  take  the  heart  out  of 
his  supreme  revelation.  For  his  whole  con- 
ception of  God  the  Father,  given  in  all  his 


ioo    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

utterances,  was  that  of  a  Heavenly  Father  of 
love,  of  care,  longing  to  exercise  His  protect- 
ing care  and  to  give  good  gifts  to  His  children 
— and  this  because  it  is  the  essential  nature 
of  God  to  be  fatherly.  His  Fatherhood  is  not, 
therefore,  accidental,  not  dependent  upon  any 
conditions  or  circumstances;  it  is  essential. 

If  it  is  the  nature  of  a  father  to  give  good 
gifts  to  his  children,  so  in  a  still  greater  de- 
gree is  it  the  nature  of  the  Heavenly  Father 
to  give  good  gifts  to  those  who  ask  Him.  As 
His  words  are  recorded  by  Matthew :  "  Or 
what  man  is  there  of  you,  whom  if  his  son  ask 
bread,  will  he  give  him  a  stone?  Or  if  he 
ask  a  fish,  will  he  give  him  a  serpent?  If  ye 
then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts 
unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven  give  good  things  to 
them  that  ask  him?  "  So  in  the  parable  as 
presented  by  Jesus,  the  father's  love  was  such 
that  as  soon  as  it  was  made  known  to  him 
that  his  son  who  had  been  lost  to  him  had 
returned,  he  went  out  to  meet  him ;  he  granted 
him  full  pardon — and  there  were  no  condi- 
tions. 

Speaking  of  the  fundamental  teaching  of 
the  Master,  and  also  in  connection  with  this 
same  parable,  another  has  said :  "  It  thus  ap- 
pears from  this  story,  as  elsewhere  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  that  he  did  not  call  God  our 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    101 

father  because  He  created  us,  or  because  He 
rules  over  us,  or  because  He  made  a  covenant 
with  Abraham,  but  simply  and  only  because  He 
loves  us.  This  parable  individualises  the  divine 
love,  as  did  also  the  missionary  activity  of 
Jesus.  The  gospels  know  nothing  of  a  na- 
tional fatherhood,  of  a  God  whose  love  is  con- 
fined to  a  particular  people.  It  is  the  indi- 
vidual man  who  has  a  heavenly  Father,  and 
this  individualised  fatherhood  is  the  only  one 
of  which  Jesus  speaks.  As  he  had  realised  his 
own  moral  and  spiritual  life  in  the  conscious- 
ness that  God  was  his  father,  so  he  sought 
to  give  life  to  the  world  by  a  living  revelation 
of  the  truth  that  God  loves  each  separate  soul. 
This  is  a  prime  factor  in  the  religion  and  ethics 
of  Jesus.  It  is  seldom  or  vaguely  apprehended 
in  the  Old  Testament  teaching;  but  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  it  is  central  and  normative." 
Again  in  the  two  allied  parables  of  Jesus — the 
Parable  of  the  Lost  Sheep,  and  the  Parable  of 
the  Lost  Coin — it  is  his  purpose  to  teach  the 
great  love  of  the  Father  for  all,  including  those 
lost  in  their  trespasses  and  sins,  and  His  re- 
joicing in  their  return. 

This  leads  to  Jesus'  conception  and  teaching 
of  sin  and  repentance.  Although  God  is  the 
Father,  He  demands  filial  obedience  in  the 
hearts  and  the  minds  of  His  children.  Men 
by  following  the  devices  and  desires  of  their 


102    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

own  hearts,  are  not  true  to  their  real  nature, 
their  Divine  pattern.  By  following  their  self- 
ish desires  they  have  brought  sin,  and  thereby 
suffering,  on  themselves  and  others.  The  un- 
clean, the  selfish  desires  of  mind  and  heart, 
keep  them  from  their  higher  moral  and  spirit- 
ual ideal — although  not  necessarily  giving 
themselves  to  gross  sin.  Therefore,  they  must 
become  sons  of  God  by  repenting — by  turning 
from  the  evil  inclinations  of  their  hearts  and 
seeking  to  follow  the  higher  inclinations  of 
the  heart  as  becomes  children  of  God  and  those 
who  are  dwellers  in  the  Heavenly  Kingdom. 
Therefore,  his  opening  utterance :  "  The  time 
is  fulfilled,  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand ; 
repent  ye,  and  believe  the  gospel." 

Love  of  God  with  the  whole  heart,  and  love 
of  the  neighbour,  leading  to  the  higher  peace 
and  fulfilment,  must  take  the  place  of  these 
more  selfish  desires  that  lead  to  antagonisms 
and  dissatisfactions  both  within  and  without. 
All  men  are  to  pray :  Forgive  us  our  sins.  All 
men  are  to  repent  of  their  sins  which  are  the 
results  of  following  their  own  selfish  desires, — 
those  of  the  body,  or  their  own  selfish  desires 
to  the  detriment  of  the  welfare  of  the 
neighbour. 

All  men  are  to  seek  the  Divine  rule,  the  rule 
of  God  in  the  heart,  and  thereby  have  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  is  the 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    103 

Divine  spirit  of  wisdom  that  tabernacles  with 
man  when  through  desire  and  through  will  he 
makes  the  conditions  whereby  it  can  make  its 
abode  with  him.  It  is  a  manifestation  of  the 
force  that  is  above  man — it  is  the  eternal  herit- 
age of  the  soul.  "  Now  the  Lord  is  the  Spirit 
and  where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is 
liberty."  And  therein  lies  salvation.  It  fol- 
lows the  seeking  and  the  finding  of  the  King- 
dom of  God  and  His  righteousness  that  Jesus 
revealed  to  a  waiting  world. 

And  so  it  was  the  spirit  of  religion  that 
Jesus  came  to  reveal — the  real  Fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  Divine  Sonship  of  man.  A  better 
righteousness  than  that  of  the  scribes  and  the 
Pharisees — not  a  slavish  adherence  to  the 
Law,  with  its  supposed  profits  and  rewards. 
Get  the  motive  of  life  right.  Get  the  heart 
right  and  these  things  become  of  secondary 
importance.  As  his  supreme  revelation  was 
the  personal  fatherhood  of  God,  from  which 
follows  necessarily  the  Divine  sonship  of  man, 
so  there  was  a  corollary  to  it,  a  portion  of  it 
almost  as  essential  as  the  main  truth  itself — 
namely,  that  all  men  are  brothers.  Not  merely 
those  of  one  little  group,  or  tribe  or  nation; 
not  merely  those  of  any  one  little  set  or  re- 
ligion; not  merely  those  of  this  or  that  little 
compartment  that  we  build  and  arbitrarily 
separate  ourselves  into — but  all  men  the  world 


io4    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

over.    If  this  is  not  true  then  Jesus'  supreme 
revelation  is  false. 

In  connection  with  this  great  truth  he 
brought  a  new  standard  by  virtue  of  the  logic 
of  his  revelation.  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath 
been  said,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour,  and 
hate  thine  enemy.  But  I  say  unto  you,  Love 
your  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse  you,  do 
good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them 
which  despitefully  use  you,  and  persecute  you ; 
that  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  Struggling  for  recogni- 
tion all  through  the  Old  Testament  scriptures, 
and  breaking  through  partially  at  least  in 
places,  was  this  conception  which  is  at  the 
very  basis  of  all  man's  relationship  with  man. 

And  finally  through  this  supreme  Master  of 
life  it  did  break  through,  with  a  wonderful 
newborn  consciousness. 

The  old  dispensation,  with  its  legal  formal- 
ism, was  an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a 
tooth.  The  new  dispensation  was — "  But  I 
say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies."  Enmity 
begets  enmity.  It  is  as  senseless  as  it  is  god- 
less. It  runs  through  all  his  teachings  'and 
through  every  act  of  his  life.  If  fundamen- 
tally you  do  not  have  the  love  of  your  fellow- 
man  in  your  hearts,  you  do  not  have  the  love 
of  God  in  your  hearts  and  you  cannot  have. 

And  that  this  fundamental  revelation  be  not 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    105 

misunderstood,  near  the  close  of  his  life  he 
said :  "  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you, 
that  ye  love  one  another."  No  man  could  be, 
can  be  his  disciple,  his  follower,  and  fail  in 
the  realisation  of  this  fundamental  teaching. 
"  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my 
disciples,  if  ye  love  one  another."  And  going 
back  again  to  his  ministry  we  find  that  it 
breathes  through  every  teaching  that  he  gave. 
It  breathes  through  that  short  memorable 
prayer  which  we  call  the  Lord's  Prayer.  It 
permeates  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  It  is 
the  very  essence  of  his  summing  up  of  this 

discourse.  We  call  it  the  Golden  Rule. 
"  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them."  Not  that  it 
was  original  with  Jesus;  other  teachers  sent 
of  God  had  given  it  before  to  other  peoples — 
God's  other  children;  but  he  gave  it  a  new 
emphasis,  a  new  setting.  He  made  it  funda- 
mental. 

So  a  man  who  is  gripped  at  all  vitally  by 
Jesus'  teaching  of  the  personal  fatherhood  of 
God,  and  the  personal  brotherhood  of  man, 
simply  can't  help  but  make  this  the  basic  rule 
of  his  life — and  moreover  find  joy  in  so  mak- 
ing it.  A  man  who  really  comprehends  this 
fundamental  teaching  can't  be  crafty,  sneak- 
ing, dishonest,  or  dishonourable,  in  his  busi- 
ness, or  in  any  phase  of  his  personal  life.  He 


io6    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

never  hogs  the  penny — in  other  words,  he 
never  seeks  to  gain  his  own  advantage  to  the 
disadvantage  of  another.  He  may  be  long- 
headed; he  may  be  able  to  size  up  and  seize 
conditions ;  but  he  seeks  no  advantage  for  him- 
self to  the  detriment  of  his  fellow,  to  the  detri- 
ment of  his  community,  or  to  the  detriment  of 
his  extended  community,  the  nation  or  the 
world.  He  is  thoughtful,  considerate,  open, 
frank;  and,  moreover,  he  finds  great  joy  in 
being  so. 

I  have  never  seen  any  finer  statement  of  the 
essential  reasonableness,  therefore,  of  the 
essential  truth  of  the  value  and  the  practice 
of  the  Golden  Rule  than  that  given  by  a  mod- 
ern disciple  of  Jesus  who  left  us  but  a  few 
years  ago.  A  poor  boy,  a  successful  business 
man,  straight,  square,  considerate  in  all  his 
dealings, — a  power  among  his  fellows,  a  lamp 
indeed  to  the  feet  of  many — was  Samuel  Mil- 
ton Jones,  thrice  mayor  of  Toledo.  Simple, 
unassuming,  friend  of  all,  rich  as  well  as  poor, 
poor  as  well  as  rich,  friend  of  the  outcast, 
the  thief,  the  criminal,  looking  beyond  the  ex- 
terior, he  saw  as  did  Jesus,  the  human  soul 
always  intact,  though  it  erred  in  its  judgment 
— as  we  all  err  in  our  judgments,  each  in  his 
own  peculiar  way — and  that  by  forbearance, 
consideration,  and  love,  it  could  be  touched 
and  the  life  redeemed — redeemed  to  happiness, 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    107 

to  usefulness,  to  service.  Notwithstanding  his 
many  duties,  business  and  political,  he  thought 
much  and  he  loved  to  talk  of  the  things  we 
are  considering. 

His  brief  statement  of  the  fundamental  rea- 
sons and  the  comprehensive  results  of  the 
actual  practice  of  the  Golden  Rule  are  shot 
through  with  such  fine  insight,  such  abound- 
ing comprehension,  that  they  deserve  to  be- 
come immortal.  He  was  my  friend  and  I 
would  not  see  them  die.  I  reproduce  them 
here :  "  As  I  view  it,  the  Golden  Rule  is  the 
supreme  law  of  life.  It  may  be  paraphrased 
this  way:  As  you  do  unto  others,  others  will 
do  unto  you.  What  I  give,  I  get.  If  I  love 
you,  really  and  truly  and  actively  love  you, 
you  are  as  sure  to  love  me  in  return  as  the 
earth  is  sure  to  be  warmed  by  the  rays  of  the 
midsummer  sun.  If  I  hate  you,  ill-treat  you 
and  abuse  you,  I  am  equally  certain  to  arouse 
the  same  kind  of  antagonism  towards  me,  un- 
less the  Divine  nature  is  so  developed  that  it 
is  dominant  in  you,  and  you  have  learned  to 
love  your  enemies.  What  can  be  plainer? 
The  Golden  Rule  is  the  law  of  action  and 
reaction  in  the  field  of  morals,  just  as  definite, 
just  as  certain  here  as  the  law  is  definite  and 
certain  in  the  domain  of  physics. 

"  I  think  the  confusion  with  respect  to  the 
Golden  Rule  arises  from  the  different  concep- 


io8    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

tions  that  we  have  of  the  word  love.  I  use 
the  word  love  as  synonymous  with  reason,  and 
when  I  speak  of  doing  the  loving  thing,  I  mean 
the  reasonable  thing.  When  I  speak  of  dealing 
with  my  fellow-men  in  an  unreasonable  way, 
I  mean  an  unloving  way.  The  terms  are  inter- 
changeable, absolutely.  The  reason  why  we 
know  so  little  about  the  Golden  Rule  is  be- 
cause we  have  not  practised  it." 

Was  Mayor  Jones  a  Christian?  you  ask. 
He  was  a  follower  of  the  Christ — for  it  was  he 
who  said :  "  By  this  shall  all  men  know  ye 
are  my  disciples,  if  ye  love  one  another."  Was 
he  a  member  of  a  religious  organisation?  I 
don't  know — it  never  occurred  to  me  to  ask 
him.  Thinking  men  the  world  over  are  mak- 
ing a  sharp  distinction  in  these  days  between 
organised  Christianity  and  essential  Chris- 
tianity. 

The  element  of  fear  has  lost  its  hold  on  the 
part  of  thinking  men  and  women.  It  never 
opened  up,  it  never  can  open  up  the  springs 
of  righteousness  in  the  human  heart.  He  be- 
lieved and  he  acted  upon  the  belief  that  it  was 
the  spirit  that  the  Master  taught — that  God 
is  a  God  of  love  and  that  He  reveals  Himself 
in  terms  of  love  to  those  who  really  know  Him. 
He  believed  that  there  is  joy  to  the  human 
soul  in  following  this  inner  guide  and  trans- 
lating its  impulses  into  deeds  of  love  and  serv- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    109 

ice  for  one's  fellow-men.  If  we  could,  if  we 
would  thus  translate  religion  into  terms  of  life, 
it  would  become  a  source  of  perennial  joy. 

It  is  not  with  observation,  said  Jesus,  that 
the  supreme  thing  that  he  taught — the  seek- 
ing and  finding  of  the  Kingdom  of  God — will 
come.  Do  not  seek  it  at  some  other  place, 
some  other  time.  It  is  within,  and  if  within 
it  will  show  forth.  Make  no  mistake  about 
that, — it  will  show  forth.  It  touches  and  it 
sensitises  the  inner  springs  of  action  in  a  man's 
or  a  woman's  life.  When  a  man  realises  his 
Divine  sonship  that  Jesus  taught,  he  will  act 
as  a  son  of  God.  Out  of  the  heart  spring 
either  good  or  evil  actions.  Self-love,  me, 
mine ;  let  me  get  all  I  can  for  myself,  or,  thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself — the 
Divine  law  of  service,  of  mutuality — the  high- 
est source  of  ethics. 

You  can  trust  any  man  whose  heart  is  right. 
He  will  be  straight,  clean,  reliable.  His  word 
will  be  as  good  as  his  bond.  Personally  you 
can't  trust  a  man  who  is  brought  into  any  line 
of  action,  or  into  any  institution  through  fear. 
The  sore  is  there,  liable  to  break  out  in  cor- 
ruption at  any  time.  This  opening  up  of  the 
springs  of  the  inner  life  frees  him  also  from 
the  letter  of  the  law,  which  after  all  consists 
of  the  traditions  of  men,  and  makes  him  sub- 
ject to  that  higher  moral  guide  within.  How 


no    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

clearly  Jesus  illustrated  this  in  his  conversa- 
tions regarding  the  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath— how  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man  and 
not  man  for  the  Sabbath,  and  how  it  was  al- 
ways right  to  do  good  on  the  Sabbath. 

I  remember  some  years  ago  a  friend  in  my 
native  state  telling  me  the  following  interest- 
ing incident  in  connection  with  his  grand- 
mother. It  was  in  northern  Illinois — it  might 
have  been  in  New  England.  "  As  a  boy,"  said 
he,  "  I  used  to  visit  her  on  the  farm.  She  loved 
her  cup  of  coffee  for  breakfast.  Ordinarily 
she  would  grind  it  fresh  each  morning  in  the 
kitchen;  but  when  Sunday  morning  came  she 
would  take  her  coffee-grinder  down  into  the 
far  end  of  the  cellar,  where  no  one  could  see 
and  no  one  could  hear  her  grind  it."  He  could 
never  quite  tell,  he  said,  whether  it  was  to 
ease  her  own  conscience,  or  in  order  to  give  no 
offence  to  her  neighbours. 

Now,  I  can  imagine  Jesus  passing  by  and 
stopping  at  that  home — it  was  a  home  known 
for  its  native  kindly  hospitality — and  meeting 
her  just  as  she  was  coming  out  of  the  cellar 
with  her  coffee-grinder — his  quick  and  unerr- 
ing perception  enabling  him  to  take  in  the 
whole  situation  at  once,  and  saying :  "  In  the 
name  of  the  Father,  Aunt  Susan,  what  were 
you  doing  with  your  coffee-grinder  down  in 
the  cellar  on  this  beautiful  Sabbath  morning? 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    in 

You  like  your  cup  of  coffee,  and  I  also  like 
the  coffee  that  you  make ;  thank  God  that  you 
have  it,  and  thank  God  that  you  have  the  good 
health  to  enjoy  it.  We  can  give  praise  to  the 
Father  through  eating  and  drinking,  if,  as  in 
everything  else,  these  are  done  in  moderation 
and  we  give  value  received  for  all  the  things 
that  we  use.  So  don't  take  your  grinder  down 
into  the  cellar  on  the  Sabbath  morning;  but 
grind  your  coffee  up  here  in  God's  sunshine, 
with  a  thankful  heart  that  you  have  it  to 
grind." 

And  I  can  imagine  him,  as  he  passes  out  of 
the  little  front  gate,  turning  and  waving  an- 
other good-bye  and  saying :  "  When  I  come 
again,  Aunt  Susan,  be  it  week-day  or  Sabbath, 
remember  God's  sunshine  and  keep  out  of  the 
cellar."  And  turning  again  in  a  half-joking 
manner :  "  And  when  you  take  those  baskets  of 
eggs  to  town,  Aunt  Susan,  don't  pick  out  too 
many  of  the  large  ones  to  keep  for  yourself, 
but  take  them  just  as  the  hens  lay  them.  And, 
Aunt  Susan,  give  good  weight  in  your  butter. 
This  will  do  your  soul  infinitely  more  good 
than  the  few  extra  coins  you  would  gain  by 
too  carefully  calculating  " — Aunt  Susan  with 
all  her  lovable  qualities,  had  a  little  tendency 
to  close  dealing. 

I  think  we  do  incalculable  harm  by  separat- 
ing Jesus  so  completely  from  the  more  homely, 


commonplace  affairs  of  our  daily  lives.  If  we 
had  a  more  adequate  account  of  his  discourses 
with  the  people  and  his  associations  with  the 
people,  we  would  perhaps  find  that  he  was  not, 
after  all,  so  busy  in  saving  the  world  that  he 
didn't  have  time  for  the  simple,  homely  en- 
joyments and  affairs  of  the  every-day  life.  The 
little  glimpses  that  we  have  of  him  along 
these  lines  indicate  to  me  that  he  had.  Un- 
less we  get  his  truths  right  into  this  phase  of 
our  lives,  the  chances  are  that  we  will  miss 
them  entirely. 

And  I  think  that  with  all  his  earnestness, 
Jesus  must  have  had  an  unusually  keen  sense 
of  humour.  With  his  unusual  perceptions  and 
his  unusual  powers  in  reading  and  in  under- 
standing human  nature,  it  could  not  be  other- 
wise. That  he  had  a  keen  sense  for  beauty; 
that  he  saw  it,  that  he  valued  it,  that  he  loved 
it,  especially  beauty  in  all  nature,  many  of 
his  discourses  so  abundantly  prove.  Religion 
with  him  was  not  divorced  from  life.  It  was 
the  power  that  permeated  every  thought  and 
every  act  of  the  daily  life. 


VIII 


IF  WE  SEEK  THE  ESSENCE   OF  HIS   REV- 
ELATION, AND  THE  PURPOSE  OF 
HIS  LIFE 

If  we  would  seek  the  essence  of  Jesus' 
revelation,  attested  both  by  his  words  and  his 
life,  it  was  to  bring  a  knowledge  of  the  in- 
effable love  of  God  to  man,  and  by  revealing 
this,  to  instil  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men 
love  for  God,  and  a  knowledge  of  and  follow- 
ing of  the  ways  of  God.  It  was  also  then  to 
bring  a  new  emphasis  of  the  Divine  law  of 
love — the  love  of  man  for  man.  Combined,  it 
results,  so  to  speak,  in  raising  men  to  a  higher 
power,  to  a  higher  life, — as  individuals,  as 
groups,  as  one  great  world  group. 

It  is  a  newly  sensitised  attitude  of  mind 
and  heart  that  he  brought  and  that  he  en- 
deavoured to  reveal  in  all  its  matchless  beauty 
— a  following  not  of  the  traditions  of  men,  but 
fidelity  to  one's  God,  whereby  the  Divine  rule 
in  the  mind  and  heart  assumes  supremacy  and, 
as  must  inevitably  follow,  fidelity  to  one's  fel- 
low-men. These  are  the  essentials  of  Jesus' 
revelation — the  fundamental  forces  in  his  own 
113 


H4    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

Jife.  His  every  teaching,  his  every  act,  comes 
back  to  them.  I  believe  also  that  all  efforts 
to  mystify  the  minds  of  men  and  women  by 
later  theories  about  him  are  contrary  to  his  own 
expressed  teaching,  and  in  exact  degree  that 
they  would  seek  to  substitute  other  things  for 
these  fundamentals. 

I  call  them  fundamentals.  I  call  them  his 
fundamentals.  What  right  have  I  to  call  them 
his  fundamentals? 

An  occasion  arose  one  day  in  the  form  of  a 
direct  question  for  Jesus  to  state  in  well-con- 
sidered and  clear-cut  terms  the  essence,  the 
gist,  of  his  entire  teachings — therefore,  by  his 
authority,  the  fundamentals  of  essential  Chris- 
tianity. In  the  midst  of  one  of  the  groups  that 
he  was  speaking  to  one  day,  we  are  told  that 
a  certain  lawyer  arose — an  interpreter  of,  an 
authority  on,  the  existing  ecclesiastical  law. 
The  reference  to  him  is  so  brief,  unfortunately, 
that  we  cannot  tell  whether  his  question  was 
to  confound  Jesus,  as  was  so  often  the  case, 
or  whether  being  a  liberal  Jew  he  longed  for 
an  honest  and  truly  helpful  answer.  From 
Jesus'  remark  to  him,  after  his  primary  an- 
swer, we  are  justified  in  believing  it  was  the 
latter. 

His  question  was :  "  Master,  which  is  the 
great  commandment  in  the  law?  "  Jesus  said 
unto  him,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    115 

God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and 
great  commandment.  And  the  second  is  like 
unto  it.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself.  On  these  two  commandments  hang 
all  the  law  and  the  prophets." 

Here  we  have  a  wonderful  statement  from 
a  wonderful  source.  So  clear-cut  is  it  that  any 
wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  cannot  mistake 
it.  Especially  is  this  true  when  we  couple 
with  it  this  other  statement  of  Jesus :  "  Think 
not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law,  or  the 
prophets;  I  am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to 
fulfil."  We  must  never  forget  that  Jesus  was 
born,  lived,  and  died  a  Jew,  the  same  as  all 
of  his  disciples — and  they  never  regarded 
themselves  in  any  other  light.  The  basis  of 
his  religion  was  the  religion  of  Israel.  It  was 
this  he  taught  and  expounded,  now  in  the 
synagogue,  now  out  on  the  hillside  and  by  the 
lake-side.  It  was  this  that  he  tried  to  teach 
in  its  purity,  that  he  tried  to  free  from  the 
hedges  that  ecclesiasticism  had  built  around 
it,  this  that  he  endeavoured  to  raise  to  a  still 
higher  standard. 

One  cannot  find  the  slightest  reference  in 
any  of  his  sayings  that  would  indicate  that  he 
looked  upon  himself  in  any  other  light — ex- 
cept the  overwhelming  sense  that  it  was  his 
mission  to  bring  in  the  new  dispensation  by 


u6    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

fulfilling  the  old,  and  then  carrying  it  another 
great  step  forward,  which  he  did  in  a  wonder- 
ful way — both  God-ward  and  man-ward. 

We  must  not  forget,  then,  that  Jesus  said 
that  he  did  not  come  to  destroy  the  Law  and 
the  Prophets,  but  to  fulfil  them.  We  must 
not  forget,  however,  that  before  fulfilling  them 
he  had  to  free  them.  The  freedom-giving, 
God-illumined  words  spoken  by  free  God- 
illumined  men,  had,  in  the  hands  of  those  not 
God-illumined,  later  on  become  institutional- 
ised, made  into  a  system,  a  code.  The  people 
were  taught  that  only  the  priests  had  access 
to  God.  They  were  the  custodians  of  God's 
favour  and  only  through  the  institution  could 
any  man,  or  any  woman,  have  access  to  God. 
This  became  the  sacred  thing,  and  as  the  years 
had  passed  this  had  become  so  hedged  about 
by  continually  added  laws  and  observances 
that  all  the  spirit  of  religion  had  become 
crushed,  stifled,  beaten  to  the  ground. 

The  very  scribes  and  Pharisees  themselves, 
supposed  to  minister  to  the  spiritual  life  and 
the  welfare  of  the  people,  became  enrobed  in 
their  fine  millinery  and  arrogance,  masters  of 
the  people,  whose  ministers  they  were  sup- 
posed to  be,  as  is  so  apt  to  be  the  case  when 
an  institution  builds  itself  upon  the  free,  all- 
embracing  message  of  truth  given  by  any 
prophet  or  any  inspired  teacher.  It  has 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    117 

occurred  time  and  time  again.  Christianity 
knows  it  well.  It  is  only  by  constant  vigilance 
that  religious  freedom  is  preserved,  from 
which  alone  conies  any  high  degree  of  mo- 
rality, or  any  degree  of  free  and  upward- 
moving  life  among  the  people. 

It  was  on  account  of  this  shameful  robbing 
of  the  people  of  their  Divine  birthright  that 
the  just  soul  of  Jesus,  abhorring  both  casuistry 
and  oppression  under  the  cloak  of  religion, 
gave  utterance  to  that  fine  invective  that  he 
used  on  several  occasions,  the  only  times  that 
he  spoke  in  a  condemnatory  or  accusing  man- 
ner :  "  Now  do  ye,  Pharisee,  make  clean  the 
outside  of  the  cup  and  the  platter;  but  your 
inward  part  is  full  of  ravening  and  wicked- 
ness. Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
hypocrites!  For  ye  are  as  graves  which  ap- 
pear not,  and  the  men  that  walk  over  them 
are  not  aware  of  them.  .  .  .  Woe  unto  you 
also,  ye  lawyers!  For  ye  lade  men  with  bur- 
dens grievous  to  be  borne,  and  ye  yourselves 
touch  not  the  burdens  with  one  of  your  fingers. 
.  .  .  Woe  unto  you,  lawyers!  For  ye  have 
taken  away  the  key  of  knowledge:  ye  entered 
not  in  yourselves,  and  them  that  were  enter- 
ing in  ye  hindered." 

And  here  is  the  lesson  for  us.  It  is  the 
spirit  that  must  always  be  kept  uppermost  in 
religion.  Otherwise  even  the  revelation  and 


n8    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

the  religion  of  Jesus  could  be  compressed  into 
a  code,  with  its  self-appointed  instruments  of 
interpretation,  the  same  as  the  Pharisees  did 
the  Law  and  the  Prophets  that  he  so  bitterly 
condemned,  with  a  bravery  so  intrepid  and  so 
fearless  that  it  finally  caused  his  death. 

No,  if  God  is  not  in  the  human  soul  wait- 
ing to  make  Himself  known  to  the  believing, 
longing  heart,  accessible  to  all  alike  without 
money  and  without  price,  without  any  pre- 
scribed code,  then  the  words  of  Jesus  have  not 
been  correctly  handed  down  to  us.  And  then 
again,  confirming  us  in  the  belief  that  a  man's 
deepest  soul  relation  is  a  matter  between  him 
and  his  God,  are  his  unmistakable  and  explicit 
directions  in  regard  to  prayer. 

It  is  so  easy  to  substitute  the  secondary 
thing  for  the  fundamental,  the  by-thing  for 
the  essential,  the  container  for  the  thing  itself. 
You  will  recall  that  symbolic  act  of  Jesus  at 
the  last  meeting,  the  Last  Supper  with  his  dis- 
ciples, the  washing  of  the  disciples'  feet  by 
the  Master.  The  point  that  is  intended  to  be 
brought  out  in  the  story  is,  of  course,  the 
extraordinary  condescension  of  Jesus  in  doing 
this  menial  service  for  his  disciples.  "  The 
feet-washing  symbolises  the  attitude  of  hum- 
ble service  to  others.  Every  follower  of 
Jesus  must  experience  it."  One  of  the  dis- 
ciples is  so  astonished,  even  taken  aback  by 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    ng 

this  menial  service  on  the  part  of  Jesus,  that 
he  says:  Thou  shall  never  wash  my  feet. 
Jesus  answered  him,  "  If  I  wash  thee  not,  thou 
hast  no  part  with  me." 

In  Oriental  countries  where  sandals  are 
worn  that  cover  merely  the  soles  of  the  feet, 
it  was,  it  is  the  custom  of  the  host  to  offer 
his  guest  who  comes  water  with  which  to  wash 
his  feet.  There  is  no  reason  why  this  simple 
incident  of  humble  service,  or  rather  this 
symbolic  act  of  humble  service,  could  not  be 
taken  and  made  an  essential  condition  of  sal- 
vation by  any  council  that  saw  fit  to  make  it 
such.  Things  just  as  strange  as  this  have 
happened ;  though  any  thinking  man  or  woman 
to-day  would  deem  it  essentially  foolish. 

It  is  an  example  of  how  the  spirit  of  a 
beautiful  act  could  be  misrepresented  to  the 
people.  For  if  you  will  look  at  them  again, 
Jesus'  words  are  very  explicit :  "If  I  wash 
thee  not,  thou  hast  no  part  with  me."  But 
hear  Jesus'  own  comment  as  given  in  John: 
"  So  after  he  had  washed  their  feet,  and  had 
taken  his  garments,  and  was  set  down  again, 
he  said  unto  them,  Know  ye  what  I  have  done 
to  you?  Ye  call  me  Master  and  Lord:  and 
ye  say  well ;  for  so  I  am.  If  I  then,  your  Lord 
and  Master,  have  washed  your  feet,  ye  also 
ought  to  wash  one  another's  feet.  For  I  have 
given  you  an  example,  that  ye  should  do  as  I 


120    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

have  done  to  you.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  The  servant  is  not  greater  than  his  lord; 
neither  he  that  is  sent  greater  than  he  that 
sent  him.  If  ye  know  these  things,  happy  are 
ye  if  ye  do  them."  It  is  a  means  to  an  end 
and  not  an  end  in  itself.  The  spirit  that  it 
typifies  is  essential ;  but  not  the  act  itself. 

The  same  could  be  rightly  said  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  It  is  an  observance  that  can  be  made 
of  great  value,  one  very  dear  and  valuable  to 
many  people.  But  it  cannot,  if  Jesus  is  to  be 
our  authority,  and  if  correctly  reported,  be 
by  any  means  made  a  fundamental,  an  essen- 
tial of  salvation.  From  the  rebuke  admin- 
istered by  Jesus  to  his  disciples  in  a  number 
of  cases  where  they  were  prone  to  drag  down 
his  meanings  by  their  purely  material  inter- 
pretations, we  should  be  saved  from  this. 

You  will  recall  his  teaching  one  day  when 
he  spoke  of  himself  as  the  bread  of  life  that 
a  man  may  eat  thereof  and  not  die.  Some  of 
his  Jewish  hearers  taking  his  words  in  a  ma- 
terial sense  and  arguing  in  regard  to  them  one 
with  another  said :  "  How  can  this  man  give 
us  his  flesh  to  eat?  "  Hearing  them  Jesus  re- 
affirming his  statement  said :  "  Verily,  verily,  I 
say  unto  you,  except  ye  eat  of  the  flesh  of  the 
Son  of  Man,  and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  not 
life  in  yourselves.  .  .  .  For  my  flesh  is  meat 
indeed,  and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed."  His 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    121 

disciples,  likewise,  prone  here  as  so  often  to 
make  a  literal  and  material  interpretation  of 
his  statements,  said  one  to  another :  "  This  is 
a  hard  saying;  who  can  hear  him?"  Or 
according  to  our  idiom — who  can  understand 
him?  Jesus  asked  them  squarely  if  what  he 
had  just  said  caused  them  to  stumble,  and  in 
order  to  be  sure  that  they  might  not  miss  his 
real  meaning  and  therefore  teaching,  said :  "  It 
is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth ;  the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing :  the  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they 
are  spirit,  and  they  are  life." 

Try  as  we  will,  we  cannot  get  away  from 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  words  of  truth  that 
Jesus  brought  that  were  ever  uppermost  in 
his  mind.  He  said,  Follow  me,  not  some  one 
else,  nor  something  else  that  would  claim  to 
represent  me.  And  follow  me  merely  because 
I  lead  you  to  the  Father. 

So  supremely  had  this  young  Jewish 
prophet,  the  son  of  a  carpenter,  made  God's 
business  his  business,  that  he  had  come  into 
the  full  realisation  of  the  oneness  of  his  life 
with  the  Father's  life.  He  was  able  to  realise 
and  to  say,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one."  He 
was  able  to  bring  to  the  world  a  knowledge  of 
the  great  fact  of  facts — the  essential  oneness 
of  the  human  with  the  Divine — that  God  taber- 
nacles with  men,  that  He  makes  His  abode 
in  the  minds  and  the  hearts  of  those  who 


122    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT' 

through  desire  and  through  will  open  their 
hearts  to  His  indwelling  presence. 

The  first  of  the  race,  he  becomes  the  re- 
vealer  of  this  great  eternal  truth — the  media- 
tor, therefore,  between  God  and  man — in  very 
truth  the  Saviour  of  men.  "  If  a  man  love  me," 
said  he,  "  he  will  keep  my  words :  and  my 
Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto 
him,  and  make  our  abode  with  him.  ...  If 
ye  keep  my  commandments,  ye  shall  abide  in 
my  love;  even  as  I  have  kept  my  Father's 
commandments  and  abide  in  his  love." 

It  is  our  eternal  refusal  to  follow  Jesus  by 
listening  to  the  words  of  life  that  he  brought, 
and  our  proneness  to  substitute  something  else 
in  their  place,  that  brings  the  barrenness  that 
is  so  often  evident  in  the  everyday  life  of  the 
Christian.  We  have  been  taught  to  believe  in 
Jesus;  we  have  not  been  taught  to  believe 
Jesus.  This  has  resulted  in  a  separation  of 
Christianity  from  life.  The  predominating 
motive  has  been  the  saving  of  the  soul.  It  has 
resulted  too  often  in  a  selfish,  negative,  repres- 
sive, ineffective  religion.  As  Jesus  said :  "  And 
why  call  ye  me,  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the 
things  which  I  say?" 

We  are  just  beginning  to  realise  at  all 
adequately  that  it  was  the  salvation  of  the  life 
that  he  taught.  When  the  life  is  redeemed  to 
righteousness  through  the  power  of  the  in- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    123 

dwelling  God  and  moves  out  in  love  and  in 
service  for  one's  fellow-men,  the  soul  is  then 
saved. 

A  man  may  be  a  believer  in  Jesus  for  a  mil- 
lion years  and  still  be  an  outcast  from  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness.  But 
a  man  can't  believe  Jesus,  which  means  follow- 
ing his  teachings,  without  coming  at  once  into 
the  Kingdom  and  enjoying  its  matchless 
blessings  both  here  and  hereafter.  And  if 
there  is  one  clear-cut  teaching  of  the  Master, 
it  is  that  the  life  here  determines  and  with 
absolute  precision  the  life  to  come. 

One  need  not  then  concern  himself  with  this 
or  that  doctrine,  whether  it  be  true  or  false. 
Later  speculations  and  theories  are  not  for 
him.  Jesus'  own  saying  applies  here :  "  If  any 
man  will  do  his  will  he  shall  know  of  the  doc- 
trine, whether  it  be  of  God."  He  enters  into 
the  Kingdom,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  here 
and  now;  and  when  the  time  comes  for  him 
to  pass  out  of  this  life,  he  goes  as  a  joyous 
pilgrim,  full  of  anticipation  for  the  Kingdom 
that  awaits  him,  and  the  Master's  words  go 
with  him :  "  In  my  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions." 

By  thus  becoming  a  follower  of  Jesus  rather 
than  merely  a  believer  in  Jesus,  he  gradually 
comes  into  possession  of  insights  and  powers 
that  the  Master  taught  would  follow  in  the 


124    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

lives  of  those  who  became  his  followers.  The 
Holy  Spirit,  the  Divine  Comforter,  of  which 
Jesus  spoke,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  that  awaits 
our  bidding,  will  lead  continually  to  the  high- 
est truth  and  wisdom  and  insight  and  power. 
Kant's  statement,  "  The  other  world  is  not 
another  locality,  but  only  another  way  of  see- 
ing things,"  is  closely  allied  to  the  Master's 
statement :  "  The  Kingdom  of  God  is  within 
you."  And  closely  allied  to  both  is  this 
statement  of  a  modern  prophet :  "  The  prin- 
ciple of  Christianity  and  of  every  true  re- 
ligion is  within  the  soul — the  realisation 
of  the  incarnation  of  God  in  every  human 
being." 

When  we  turn  to  Jesus'  own  teachings  we 
find  that  his  insistence  was  not  primarily  upon 
the  saving  of  the  soul,  but  upon  the  saving  of 
the  life  for  usefulness,  for  service,  here  and 
now,  for  still  higher  growth  and  unfoldment, 
whereby  the  soul  might  be  grown  to  a  suffi- 
cient degree  that  it  would  be  worth  the  saving. 
And  this  is  one  of  the  great  facts  that  is  now 
being  recognised  and  preached  by  the  forward- 
looking  men  and  women  in  our  churches  and 
by  many  equally  religious  outside  of  our 
churches. 

And  so  all  aspiring,  all  thinking,  forward- 
looking  men  and  women  of  our  day  are  not 
interested  any  more  in  theories  about,  expla- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    125 

nations  of,  or  dogmas  about  Jesus.  They  are 
being  won  and  enthralled  by  the  wonderful 
personality  and  life  of  Jesus.  They  are  being 
gripped  by  the  power  of  his  teachings.  They 
do  not  want  theories  about  God — they  want 
God — and  God  is  what  Jesus  brought — God 
as  the  moving,  the  predominating,  the  all- 
embracing  force  in  the  individual  life.  But 
he  who  finds  the  Kingdom  of  God,  whose  life 
becomes  subject  to  the  Divine  rule  and  life 
within,  realises  at  once  also  his  true  relations 
with  the  whole — with  his  neighbour,  his 
fellow-men.  He  realises  that  his  neighbour 
is  not  merely  the  man  next  door,  the  man 
around  the  corner,  or  even  the  man  in  the 
next  town  or  city;  but  that  his  neighbour  is 
every  man  and  every  woman  in  the  world — 
because  all  children  of  the  same  infinite  Father, 
all  bound  in  the  same  direction,  but  over  many 
different  roads. 

The  man  who  has  come  under  the  influence 
and  the  domination  of  the  Divine  rule,  realises 
that  his  interests  lie  in  the  same  direction  as 
the  interests  of  all,  that  he  cannot  gain  for 
himself  any  good — that  is,  any  essential  good 
— at  the  expense  of  the  good  of  all ;  but  rather 
that  his  interests,  his  welfare,  and  the  interests 
and  the  welfare  of  all  others  are  identical. 
God's  rule,  the  Divine  rule,  becomes  for  him, 
therefore,  the  fundamental  rule  in  the  business 


126    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

world,  the  dominating  rule  in  political  life  and 
action,  the  dominating  rule  in  the  law  and 
relations  of  nations, 

Jesus  did  not  look  with  much  favour  upon 
outward  form,  ceremony,  or  with  much  favour 
upon  formulated,  or  formal  religion;  and  he 
somehow  or  other  seemed  to  avoid  the  com- 
pany of  those  who  did.  We  find  him  almost 
continually  down  among  the  people,  the  poor, 
the  needy,  the  outcast,  the  sinner — wherever 
he  could  be  of  service  to  the  Father,  that  is, 
wherever  he  could  be  of  service  to  the  Father's 
children.  According  to  the  accounts  he  was 
inot  always  as  careful  in  regard  to  those  with 
whom  he  associated  as  the  more  respectable 
ones,  the  more  respectable  classes  of  his  day 
thought  he  should  be.  They  remarked  it  many 
times.  Jesus  noticed  it  and  remarked  in 
turn. 

We  find  him  always  where  the  work  was 
to  be  done — friend  equally  of  the  poor  and 
humble,  and  those  of  station — truly  friend  of 
man,  teaching,  helping,  uplifting.  And  then 
we  find  him  out  on  the  mountain  side — in  the 
quiet,  in  communion — to  keep  his  realisation  of 
his  oneness  with  the  Father  intact;  and  with 
this  help  he  went  down  regularly  to  the  peo- 
ple, trying  to  lift  their  minds  and  lives  up  to 
the  Divine  ideal  that  he  revealed  to  them,  that 
they  in  turn  might  realise  their  real  relations 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    127 

one  with  another,  that  the  Kingdom  of  God 
and  His  righteousness  might  grow  and  become 
the  dominating  law  and  force  in  the  world — 
"  Thy  Kingdom  come,  Thy  Will  be  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven." 

It  is  this  Kingdom  idea,  the  Divine  rule,  the 
rule  of  God  in  all  of  the  relations  and  affairs  of 
men  on  earth  that  is  gripping  earnest  men  and 
women  in  great  numbers  among  us  to-day. 
Under  the  leadership  of  these  thinking,  God- 
impelled  men  and  women,  many  of  our 
churches  are  pushing  their  endeavours  out  into 
social  service  activities  along  many  different 
lines;  and  the  result  is  they  are  calling  into 
their  ranks  many  able  men  and  women, 
especially  younger  men  and  women,  who 
are  intensely  religious,  but  to  whom  for- 
mal, inactive  religion  never  made  any  ap- 
peal. 

When  the  Church  begins  actually  to  throw 
the  Golden  Rule  onto  its  banner,  not  in  theory 
but  in  actual  practice,  actually  forgetting  self 
in  the  Master's  service,  careless  even  of  her 
own  interests,  her  membership,  she  thereby 
calls  into  her  ranks  vast  numbers  of  the  best 
of  the  race,  especially  among  the  young,  so 
that  the  actual  result  is  a  membership  not  only 
larger  than  she  could  ever  hope  to  have  other- 
wise, but  a  membership  that  commands  such 
respect  and  that  exercises  such  power,  that 


128    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

she  is  astounded  at  her  former  stupidity  in 
being  shackled  so  long  by  the  traditions  of  the 
past.  A  new  life  is  engendered.  There  is  the 
joy  of  real  accomplishment. 

We  are  in  an  age  of  great  changes.  Advanc- 
ing knowledge  necessitates  changes.  And 
may  I  say  a  word  here  to  our  Christian  minis- 
try, that  splendid  body  of  men  for  whom  I 
have  such  supreme  admiration?  One  of  the 
most  significant  facts  of  our  time  is  this  wide- 
spread inclination  and  determination  on  the 
part  of  such  great  numbers  of  thinking  men 
and  women  to  go  directly  to  Jesus  for  their 
information  of,  and  their  inspiration  from  him. 
The  beliefs  and  the  voice  of  the  laymen,  those 
in  our  churches  and  those  out  of  our  churches, 
must  be  taken  into  account  and  reckoned  with. 
Jesus  is  too  large  and  too  universal  a  charac- 
ter to  be  longer  the  sole  possession,  the  prop- 
erty of  any  organisation. 

There  is  a  splendid  body  of  young  men  and 
young  women  numbering  into  untold  thou- 
sands, who  are  being  captured  by  the  person- 
ality and  the  simple  direct  message  of  Jesus. 
Many  of  these  have  caught  his  spirit  and  are 
going  off  into  other  lines  of  the  Master's  serv- 
ice. They  are  doing  effective  and  telling 
work  there.  Remember  that  when  the  spirit 
of  the  Christ  seizes  a  man,  it  is  through  the 
channel  of  present-day  forms  and  present-day 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    139 

terms,  not  in  those  of  fifteen  hundred,  or  six- 
teen hundred,  or  even  three  hundred  years  ago. 

There  is  a  spirit  of  intellectual  honesty  that 
prevents  many  men  and  women  from  subscrib- 
ing to  anything  to  which  they  cannot  give 
their  intellectual  assent,  as  well  as  their  moral 
and  spiritual  assent.  They  do  not  object  to 
creeds.  They  know  that  a  creed  is  but  a  state- 
ment, a  statement  of  a  man's  or  a  woman's 
belief,  whether  it  be  in  connection  with  reli- 
gion, or  in  connection  with  anything  else.  But 
what  they  do  object  to  is  dogma,  that  unholy 
thing  that  lives  on  credulity,  that  is  therefore 
destructive  of  the  intellectual  and  the  moral 
life  of  every  man  and  every  woman  who  al- 
lows it  to  lay  its  paralysing  hand  upon  them, 
that  can  be  held  to  if  one  is  at  all  honest  and 
given  to  thought,  only  through  intellectual 
chicanery. 

We  must  not  forget  also  that  God  is  still  at 
work,  revealing  Himself  more  fully  to  man- 
kind through  modern  prophets,  through  mod- 
ern agencies.  His  revelation  is  not  closed. 
It  is  still  going  on.  The  silly  presumption  in 
the  statement  therefore — "  the  truth  once  de- 
livered." 

It  is  well  occasionally  to  call  to  mind  these 
words  by  Robert  Burns,  singing  free  and  with 
an  untrammelled  mind  and  soul  from  his 
heather-covered  hills: 


130    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

Here's  freedom  to  him  that  wad  read, 
Here's  freedom  to  him  that  wad  write ; 

There's  nane  ever  feared  that  the  truth  should 

be  heared 
But  them  that  the  truth  wad  indict. 

It  is  essential  to  remember  that  we  are  in 
possession  of  knowledge,  that  we  are  face  to 
face  with  conditions  that  are  different  from 
any  in  the  previous  history  of  Christendom. 
The  Christian  church  must  be  sure  that  it 
moves  fast  enough  so  as  not  to  alienate,  but 
to  draw  into  it  that  great  body  of  intellectually 
alive,  intellectually  honest  young  men  and 
women  who  have  the  Christ  spirit  of  service 
and  who  are  mastered  by  a  great  purpose  of 
accomplishment.  Remember  that  these  young 
men  and  women  are  now  merely  standing 
where  the  entire  church  will  stand  in  a  few 
years.  Remember  that  any  man  or  woman 
who  has  the  true  spirit  of  service  has  the  spirit 
of  Christ — and  more,  has  the  religion  of  the 
Christ. 

Remember  that  Jesus  formulated  no  organi- 
sation. His  message  of  the  Kingdom  was  so 
far-reaching  that  no  organisation  could  ever 
possibly  encompass  it,  though  an  organisation 
may  be,  and  has  been,  a  great  aid  in  actual- 
ising  it  here  on  earth.  He  never  made  any 
conditions  as  to  through  whom,  or  what,  his 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    131 

truth  should  be  spread,  and  he  would  condemn 
today  any  instrumentality  that  would  abrogate 
to  itself  any  monopoly  of  his  truth,  just  as  he 
condemned  those  ecclesiastical  authorities  of 
his  day  who  presumed  to  do  the  same  in 
connection  with  the  truth  of  God's  earlier 
prophets. 

And  so  I  would  say  to  the  Church — beware 
and  be  wise.  Make  your  conditions  so  that 
you  can  gain  the  allegiance  and  gain  the  help 
of  this  splendid  body  of  young  men  and  young 
women.  Many  of  them  are  made  of  the  stock 
that  Jesus  would  choose  as  his  own  apostles. 
Among  the  young  men  will  be  our  greatest 
teachers,  our  great  financiers,  our  best  legis- 
lators, our  most  valuable  workers  and  organ- 
isers in  various  fields  of  social  service,  our 
most  widely  read  authors,  eminent  and  in- 
fluential editorial  and  magazine  writers  as 
well  as  managers. 

Many  of  these  young  women  will  have  high 
and  responsible  positions  as  educators.  Some 
will  be  heads  and  others  will  be  active  workers 
in  our  widely  extended  and  valuable  women's 
clubs.  Some  will  have  a  hand  in  political  ac- 
tion, in  lifting  politics  out  of  its  many-times 
low  condition  into  its  rightful  state  in  being 
an  agent  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  peo- 
ple's best  purposes  and  their  highest  good. 
Some  will  be  editors  of  widely  circulating  and 


132    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

influential  women's  magazines.  Some  will  be 
mothers,  true  mothers  of  the  children  of 
others,  denied  their  rights  and  their  privileges. 
Make  it  possible  for  them,  nay,  make  it  incum- 
bent upon  them  to  come  in,  to  work  within 
the  great  Church  organisation. 

It  cannot  afford  that  they  stay  out.  It  is 
suicidal  to  keep  them  out.  Any  other  type  of 
organisation  that  did  not  look  constantly  to 
commanding  the  services  of  the  most  capable 
and  expert  in  its  line  would  fall  in  a  very  few 
months  into  the  ranks  of  the  ineffectives.  A 
business  or  a  financial  organisation  that  did 
not  do  the  same  would  go  into  financial  bank- 
ruptcy in  even  a  shorter  length  of  time.  By 
attracting  this  class  of  men  and  women  into 
its  ranks  it  need  fear  neither  moral  nor  finan- 
cial bankruptcy. 

But  remember,  many  men  and  women  of 
large  calibre  are  so  busy  doing  God's  work 
in  the  world  that  they  have  no  time  and  no 
inclination  to  be  attracted  by  anything  that 
does  not  claim  their  intellectual  as  well  as 
their  moral  assent.  The  Church  must  speak 
fully  and  unequivocally  in  terms  of  present-day 
thought  and  present-day  knowledge,  to  win 
the  allegiance  or  even  to  attract  the  attention 
of  this  type  of  men  and  women. 

And  may  I  say  here  this  word  to  those  out- 
side, and  especially  to  this  class  of  young  men 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    133 

and  young  women  outside  of  our  churches? 
Changes,  and  therefore  advances  in  matters 
of  this  kind  come  slowly.  This  is  true  from 
the  very  nature  of  human  nature.  Inherited 
beliefs,  especially  when  it  comes  to  matters 
of  religion,  take  the  deepest  hold  and  are  the 
slowest  to  change.  Not  in  all  cases,  but  this 
is  the  general  rule. 

Those  who  hold  on  to  the  old  are  earnest, 
honest.  They  believe  that  these  things  are 
too  sacred  to  be  meddled  with,  or  even  some- 
times, to  be  questioned.  The  ordinary  mind 
is  slow  to  distinguish  between  tradition  and 
truth — especially  where  the  two  have  been  so 
fully  and  so  adroitly  mixed.  Many  are  not  in 
possession  of  the  newer,  the  more  advanced 
knowledge  in  various  fields  that  you  are  in 
possession  of.  But  remember  this — in  even  a 
dozen  years  a  mighty  change  has  taken  place 
— except  in  a  church  whose  very  foundation 
and  whose  sole  purpose  is  dogma. 

In  most  of  our  churches,  however,  the  great 
bulk  of  our  ministers  are  just  as  forward- 
looking,  just  as  earnest  as  you,  and  are  deeply 
desirous  of  following  and  presenting  the  high- 
est truth  in  so  far  as  it  lies  within  their  power 
to  do  so.  It  is  a  splendid  body  of  men,  willing 
to  welcome  you  on  your  own  grounds,  longing 
for  your  help.  It  is  a  mighty  engine  for  good. 
Go  into  it.  Work  with  it.  Work  through  it. 


134    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

The  best  men  in  the  Church  are  longing  for 
your  help.  They  need  it  more  than  they  need 
anything  else.  I  can  assure  you  of  this — I 
have  talked  with  many. 

They  feel  their  handicaps.  They  are  mov- 
ing as  rapidly  as  they  find  it  possible  to  move. 
On  the  whole,  they  are  doing  splendid  work 
and  with  a  big,  fine  spirit  of  which  you  know 
but  little.  You  will  find  a  wonderful  spirit  of 
self-sacrifice,  also.  You  will  find  a  stimulating 
and  precious  comradeship  on  the  part  of  many. 
You  will  find  that  you  will  get  great  good, 
even  as  you  are  able  to  give  great  good. 

The  Church,  as  everything  else,  needs  to 
keep  its  machinery  in  continual  repair.  Help 
take  out  the  worn-out  parts — but  not  too  sud- 
denly. The  Church  is  not  a  depository,  but 
an  instrument  and  engine  of  truth  and  right- 
eousness. Some  of  the  older  men  do  not 
realise  this;  but  they  will  die  off.  Respect 
their  beliefs.  Honest  men  have  honest  respect 
for  differences  of  opinion,  for  honest  differ- 
ences in  thought.  Sympathy  is  a  great  har- 
moniser.  "  Differences  of  opinion,  intellectual 
distinctions,  these  must  ever  be — separation 
of  mind,  but  unity  of  heart." 

I  like  these  words  of  Lyman  Abbott.  You 
will  like  them.  They  are  spoken  out  of  a  full 
life  of  rich  experience  and  splendid  service. 
They  have,  moreover,  a  sort  of  unifying  effect. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    135 

They  are  more  than  a  tonic :  "  Of  all  charac- 
ters in  history  none  so  gathers  into  himself 
and  reflects  from  himself  all  the  varied  virtues 
of  a  complete  manhood  as  does  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. And  the  world  is  recognising  it.  ... 
If  you  go  back  to  the  olden  time  and  the  old 
conflicts,  the  question  was,  '  What  is  the  rela- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Eternal?'  Wars 
have  been  fought  over  the  question,  '  Was  he 
of  one  substance  with  the  Father? '  I  do  not 
know;  I  do  not  know  of  what  substance  the 
Father  is;  I  do  not  know  of  what  substance 
Jesus  Christ  is.  What  I  do  know  is  this — 
that  when  I  look  into  the  actual  life  that  I 
know  about,  the  men  and  women  that  are 
about  me,  the  men  and  women  in  all  the  his- 
tory of  the  past,  of  all  the  living  beings  that 
ever  lived  and  walked  the  earth,  there  is  no 
one  that  so  fills  my  heart  with  reverence,  with 
affection,  with  loyal  love,  with  sincere  desire 
to  follow,  as  doth  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  . 

"  I  do  not  need  to  decide  whether  he  was 
born  of  a  virgin.  I  do  not  need  to  decide 
whether  he  rose  from  the  dead.  I  do  not 
need  to  decide  whether  he  made  water  into 
wine,  or  fed  five  thousand  with  two  loaves  and 
five  small  fishes.  Take  all  that  away,  and 
still  he  stands  the  one  transcendent  figure  to- 
ward whom  the  world  has  been  steadily  grow- 
ing, and  whom  the  world  has  not  yet  over- 


136    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

taken  even  in  his  teachings.  ...  I  do  not  need 
to  know  what  is  his  metaphysical  relation  to 
the  Infinite.  I  say  it  reverently — I  do  not 
care.  I  know  for  me  he  is  the  great  Teacher; 
I  know  for  me  he  is  the  great  Leader  whose 
work  I  want  to  do;  and  I  know  for  me  he  is 
the  great  Personality,  whom  I  want  to  be  like. 
That  I  know.  Theology  did  not  give  that  to 
me,  and  theology  cannot  get  it  away  from 
me." 

And  what  a  basis  as  a  test  of  character  is 
this  twofold  injunction — this  great  fundamen- 
tal of  Jesus!  All  religion  that  is  genuine 
flowers  in  character.  It  was  Benjamin  Jowett 
who  said,  and  most  truly :  "  The  value  of  a  re- 
ligion is  in  the  ethical  dividend  that  it  pays." 
When  the  heart  is  right  towards  God  we  have 
the  basis,  the  essence  of  religion — the  con- 
sciousness of  God  in  the  soul  of  man.  We 
have  truth  in  the  inward  parts.  When  the 
heart  is  right  towards  the  fellow-man  we  have 
the  essential  basis  of  ethics;  for  again  we 
have  truth  in  the  inward  parts. 

Out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life.  When 
the  heart  is  right  all  outward  acts  and  rela- 
tions are  right.  Love  draws  one  to  the  very 
heart  of  God;  and  love  attunes  one  to  all  the 
highest  and  most  valued  relationships  in  our 
human  life. 

Fear  can  never  be  a  basis  of  either  religion 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    137 

or  ethics.  The  one  who  is  moved  by  fear 
makes  his  chief  concern  the  avoidance  of  de- 
tection on  the  one  hand,  or  the  escape  of  pun- 
ishment on  the  other.  Men  of  large  calibre 
have  an  unusual  sagacity  in  sifting  the  un- 
essential from  the  essential  as  also  the  false 
from  the  true.  Lincoln,  when  replying  to  the 
question  as  to  why  he  did  not  unite  himself 
with  some  church  organisation,  said :  "  When 
any  church  will  inscribe  over  its  altar,  as  its 
sole  qualification  of  membership,  the  Saviour's 
condensed  statement  of  the  substance  of  both 
law  and  gospel:  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neigh- 
bour as  thyself,  that  church  shall  I  join  with 
all  my  heart  and  soul." 

He  was  looked  upon  by  many  in  his  day  as 
a  non-Christian — by  some  as  an  infidel.  His 
whole  life  had  a  profound  religious  basis,  so 
deep  and  so  all-absorbing  that  it  gave  him 
those  wonderful  elements  of  personality  that 
were  instantly  and  instinctively  noticed  by, 
and  that  moved  all  men  who  came  in  touch 
with  him;  and  that  sustained  him  so  wonder- 
fully, according  to  his  own  confession,  through 
those  long,  dark  periods  of  the  great  crisis. 
The  fact  that  m  yesterday's  New  York  paper 
— Sunday  paper — I  saw  the  notice  of  a  sermon 
in  one  of  our  Presbyterian  pulpits — Lincoln, 


138    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

the  Christian — shows  that  we  have  moved  up 
a  round  and  are  approaching  more  and  more 
to  an  essential  Christianity. 

Similar  to  this  statement  or  rather  belief 
was  that  of  Emerson,  Jefferson,  Franklin,  and 
a  host  of  other  men  among  us  whose  lives  have 
been  lives  of  accomplishment  and  service  for 
their  fellow-men.  Emerson,  who  said :  "  A 
man  should  learn  to  detect  and  watch  that 
gleam  of  light  which  flashes  across  his  mind 
from  within,  more  than  the  lustre  of  the  firma- 
ment of  bards  and  sages.  Yet  he  dismisses 
without  notice  his  thought,  because  it  is  his. 
In  every  work  of  genius  we  recognise  our  own 
rejected  thoughts.  They  come  back  to  us  with 
a  certain  alienated  majesty."  Emerson,  who 
also  said :  "  I  believe  in  the  still,  small  voice, 
and  that  voice  is  the  Christ  within  me."  It  was 
he  of  whom  the  famous  Father  Taylor  in  Bos- 
ton said :  "  It  may  be  that  Emerson  is  going  to 
hell,  but  of  one  thing  I  am  certain:  he  will 
change  the  climate  there  and  emigration  will 
set  that  way." 

So  thought  Jefferson,  who  said :  "  I  have 
sworn  eternal  hostility  to  every  form  of 
tyranny  over  the  minds  of  men."  And  as  he, 
great  prophet,  with  his  own  hand  penned  that 
immortal  document — the  Declaration  of  Amer- 
ican Independence— one  can  almost  imagine 
the  Galilean  prophet  standing  at  his  shoulder 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    139 

and  saying:  Thomas,  I  think  it  well  to  write 
it  so.  Both  had  a  burning  indignation  for  that 
species  of  self-seeking  either  on  the  part  of  an 
individual  or  an  organisation  that  would  seek 
to  enchain  the  minds  and  thereby  the  lives 
of  men  and  women,  and  even  lay  claim  to  their 
children.  Yet  Jefferson  in  his  time  was  fre- 
quently called  an  atheist — and  merely  because 
men  in  those  days  did  not  distinguish  as  clearly 
as  we  do  today  between  ecclesiasticism  and 
religion,  between  formulated  and  essential 
Christianity. 

So  we  are  brought  back  each  time  to 
Jesus'  two  fundamentals — and  these  come  out 
every  time  foursquare  with  the  best  thought 
of  our  time.  The  religion  of  Jesus  is  thereby 
prevented  from  being  a  mere  tribal  religion. 
It  is  prevented  from  being  merely  an  organi- 
sation that  could  possibly  have  his  sanction  as 
such — that  is,  an  organisation  that  would  be 
able  to  say:  This  is  his,  and  this  only.  It 
makes  it  have  a  world-wide  and  eternal  con- 
tent. The  Kingdom  that  Jesus  taught  is  in- 
finitely broader  in  its  scope  and  its  inclusive- 
ness  than  any  organisation  can  be,  or  that  all 
organisations  combined  can  be. 


IX 


HIS   PURPOSE   OF   LIFTING   UP,    ENERGIS- 
ING, BEAUTIFYING,  AND  SAVING  THE 
ENTIRE    LIFE:    THE    SAVING    OF 
THE  SOUL   IS   SECONDARY; 
BUT  FOLLOWS 

We  have  made  the  statement  that  Jesus  did 
unusual  things,  but  that  he  did  them  on  ac- 
count of,  or  rather  by  virtue  of,  his  unusual  in- 
sight into  and  understanding  of  the  laws 
whereby  they  could  be  done.  His  understand- 
ing of  the  powers  of  the  mind  and  spirit  was 
intuitive  and  very  great.  As  an  evidence  of 
this  were  his  numerous  cases  of  healing  the 
sick  and  the  afflicted. 

Intuitively  he  perceived  the  existence  and 
the  nature  of  the  subjective  mind,  and  in  con- 
nection with  it  the  tremendous  powers  of  sug- 
gestion. Intuitively  he  was  able  to  read,  to 
diagnose  the  particular  ailment  and  the  cause 
of  the  ailment  before  him.  His  thought  was 
so  poised  that  it  was  energised  by  a  subtle  and 
peculiar  spiritual  power.  Such  confidence  did 
his  personality  and  his  power  inspire  in  others 
that  he  was  able  to  an  unusual  degree  to  reach 
and  to  arouse  the  slumbering  subconsious  mind 
140 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    141 

of  the  sufferer  and  to  arouse  into  action  its 
own  slumbering  powers  whereby  the  life  force 
of  the  body  could  transcend  and  remould  its 
error-ridden  and  error-stamped  condition. 

In  all  these  cases  he  worked  through  the 
operation  of  law — it  is  exactly  what  we  know 
of  the  laws  of  suggestion  today.  The  remark- 
able cases  of  healing  that  are  being  accom- 
plished here  and  there  among  us  today  are 
done  unquestionably  through  the  understand- 
ing and  use  of  the  same  laws  that  Jesus  was 
the  supreme  master  of. 

By  virtue  of  his  superior  insight — his  un- 
derstanding of  the  laws  of  the  mind  and  spirit 
— he  was  able  to  use  them  so  fully  and  so 
effectively  that  he  did  in  many  cases  elimi- 
nate the  element  of  time  in  his  healing 
ministrations.  But  even  he  was  dependent  in 
practically  all  cases,  upon  the  mental  co-opera- 
tion of  the  one  who  would  be  healed.  Where 
this  was  full  and  complete  he  succeeded ;  where 
it  was  not  he  failed.  Such  at  least  again  and 
again  is  the  statement  in  the  accounts  that 
we  have  of  these  facts  in  connection  with  his 
life  and  work.  There  were  places  where 
we  are  told  he  could  do  none  of  his  mighty 
works  on  account  of  their  unbelief,  and  he  de- 
parted from  these  places  and  went  elsewhere. 
Many  times  his  question  was :  "  Believe  ye 
that  I  am  able  to  do  this?'  Then:  "Accord- 


i4a    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

ing  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you,"  and  the 
healing  was  accomplished. 

The  laws  of  mental  and  spiritual  thera- 
peutics are  identically  the  same  today  as  they 
were  in  the  days  of  Jesus  and  his  disciples,  who 
made  the  healing  of  sick  bodies  a  part  of  their 
ministration.  It  is  but  fair  to  presume  from 
the  accounts  that  we  have  that  in  the  early 
Church  of  the  Disciples,  and  for  well  on  to  two 
hundred  years  after  Jesus'  time,  the  healing 
of  the  sick  and  the  afflicted  went  hand  in  hand 
with  the  preaching  and  the  teaching  of  the 
Kingdom.  There  are  those  who  believe  that 
it  never  should  have  been  abandoned.  As  a 
well-known  writer  has  said :  "  Healing  is  the 
outward  and  practical  attestation  of  the  power 
and  genuineness  of  spiritual  religion,  and 
ought  not  to  have  dropped  out  of  the  Church." 
Recent  sincere  efforts  to  re-establish  it  in 
church  practice,  following  thereby  the  Mas- 
ter's injunction,  is  indicative  of  the  thought 
that  is  alive  in  connection  with  the  matter  to- 
day.* From  the  accounts  that  we  have  Jesus 

*  The  Emmanuel  Movement  in  Boston  in  connec- 
tion with  Emmanuel  Church,  inaugurated  some  time 
ago  under  the  leadership  and  direction  of  two  well- 
known  ministers,  Dr.  Worcester  and  Dr.  McComb, 
and  a  well-known  physician,  Dr.  Coriat,  and  similar 
movements  in  other  cities  is  an  attestation  of  this. 

That  most  valuable  book  under  the  joint  author- 
ship of  these  three  men:  "Religion  and  Medicine," 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT   143 

seems  to  have  engaged  in  works  of  healing 
more  during  his  early  than  during  his  later 
ministry.  He  may  have  used  it  as  a  means  to 
an  end.  On  account  of  his  great  love  and 
sympathy  for  the  physical  sufferer  as  well  as 
for  the  moral  sufferer,  it  is  but  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  it  was  an  integral  part  of  his  an- 
nounced purpose — the  saving  of  the  life,  of 
the  entire  life,  for  usefulness,  for  service,  for 
happiness. 

And  so  we  have  this  young  Galilean  prophet, 
coming  from  an  hitherto  unknown  Jewish 
family  in  the  obscure  little  village  of  Nazareth, 
giving  obedience  in  common  with  his  four 
brothers  and  his  sisters  to  his  father  and  his 
mother;  but  by  virtue  of  a  supreme  aptitude 
for  and  an  irresistible  call  to  the  things  of 
the  spirit — made  irresistible  through  his  over- 
whelming love  for  the  things  of  the  spirit — 
he  is  early  absorbed  by  the  realisation  of  the 
truth  that  God  is  his  father  and  that  all  men 
are  brothers. 

The  thought  that  God  is  his  father  and  that 
he  bears  a  unique  and  filial  relationship  to  God 
so  possesses  him  that  he  is  filled,  permeated 

Moffat,  Yard  and  Company,  New  York,  will  be  found 
of  absorbing  interest  and  of  great  practical  value  by 
many.  The  amount  of  valuable  as  well  as  interest- 
ing and  reliable  material  that  it  contains  is  indeed 
remarkable. 


144    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

with  the  burning  desire  to  make  this  newborn 
message  of  truth  and  thereby  of  righteousness 
known  to  the  world. 

His  own  native  religion,  once  vibrating 
through  the  souls  of  the  prophets  as  the  voice 
of  God,  has  become  so  obscured,  so  hedged 
about,  so  killed  by  dogma,  by  ceremony,  by 
outward  observances,  that  it  has  become  a 
mean  and  pitiable  thing,  and  produces  mean 
and  pitiable  conditions  in  the  lives  of  his  peo- 
ple. The  institution  has  become  so  overgrown 
that  the  spirit  has  gone.  But  God  finds  an- 
other prophet,  clearly  and  supremely  open  to 
His  spirit,  and  Jesus  comes  as  the  Messiah,  the 
Divine  Son  of  God,  the  Divine  Son  of  Man, 
bringing  to  the  earth  a  new  Dispensation.  It 
is  the  message  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood  of 
God,  God  whose  controlling  character  is  love, 
and  with  it  the  Divine  sonship  of  man.  An 
integral  part  of  it  is — all  men  are  brothers. 

He  comes  as  the  teacher  of  a  new,  a  higher 
righteousness.  He  brings  the  message  and  he 
expounds  the  message  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
All  men  he  teaches  must  repent  and  turn  from 
their  sins,  and  must  henceforth  live  in  this 
Kingdom.  It  is  an  inner  kingdom.  Men  shall 
not  say:  Behold  it  is  here  or  it  is  there;  for, 
behold,  it  is  within  you.  God  is  your  father 
and  God  longs  for  your  acknowledgment  of 
Him  as  your  father;  He  longs  for  your  love 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    145 

even  as  He  loves  you.  You  are  children  of 
God,  but  you  are  not  true  Sons  of  God  until 
through  desire  the  Divine  rule  and  life  be- 
comes supreme  in  your  minds  and  hearts.  It 
is  thus  that  you  will  find  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
When  you  do,  then  your  every  act  will  show 
forth  in  accordance  with  this  Divine  ideal  and 
guide,  and  the  supreme  law  of  conduct  in  your 
lives  will  be  love  for  your  neighbour,  for  all 
mankind.  Through  this  there  will  then  in 
time  become  actualised  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  on  the  earth. 

He  comes  in  no  special  garb,  no  millinery, 
no  brass  bands,  no  formulas,  no  dogmas,  no 
organisation  other  than  the  Kingdom,  to  up- 
hold and  become  a  slave  to,  and  in  turn  be 
absorbed  by,  as  was  the  organisation  that  he 
found  strangling  all  religion  in  the  lives  of 
his  people  and  which  he  so  bitterly  condemned. 
What  he  brought  was  something  infinitely 
transcending  this — the  Kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness,  to  which  all  men  were  heirs 
—equal  heirs — and  thereby  redemption  from 
their  sins,  therefore  salvation,  the  saving  of 
their  lives,  would  be  the  inevitable  result  of 
their  acknowledgment  of  and  allegiance  to  the 
Divine  rule. 

How  he  embraced  all — such  human  sympa- 
thy— coming  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil;  not 
to  judge  the  world  but  to  save  the  world. 


146    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

How  he  loved  the  children!  How  he  loved  to 
have  them  about  him!  How  he  loved  their 
simplicity,  and  native  integrity  of  mind  and 
heart !  Hear  him  as  he  says :  "  Verily  I  say 
unto  you,  Whosoever  shall  not  receive  the 
Kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he  shall  not 
enter  therein  " ;  and  again :  "  Suffer  the  little 
children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them 
not ;  for  of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  God."  The 
makers  of  dogma,  in  evolving  some  three  hun- 
dred years  later  on  the  dogma  of  the  inherent 
sinfulness  and  degradation  of  the  human  life 
and  soul,  could  certainly  find  not  the  slightest 
trace  of  any  basis  for  it  again  in  these  words 
and  acts  of  Jesus. 

We  find  him  sympathising  with  and  min- 
gling with  and  seeking  to  draw  unto  the  way  of 
his  own  life  the  poor,  the  outcast,  the  sinner, 
the  same  as  the  well-to-do  arid  those  of  station 
and  influence — seeking  to  draw  all  through 
love  and  knowledge  to  the  Father. 

There  is  a  sense  of  justice  and  righteousness 
in  his  soul,  however,  that  balks  at  oppression, 
injustice,  and  hypocrisy.  He  therefore  con- 
demns and  in  scathing  terms  those  and  only 
those  who  would  seek  to  place  any  barrier  be- 
tween the  free  soul  of  any  man  and  his  God, 
iwho  would  bind  either  the  mind  or  the  con- 
science of  man  to  any  prescribed  formulas  or 
dogmas.  Honouring,  therefore  the  forms  that 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    147 

his  intelligence  and  his  conscience  allowed 
him  to  honour,  he  disregarded  those  that  they 
did  not. 

Like  other  good  Jewish  rabbis,  for  he  was 
looked  upon  during  his  ministry  and  often  ad- 
dressed as  Rabbi,  he  taught  in  the  synagogues 
of  his  people;  but  oftener  out  on  the  hillsides 
and  by  the  lake-side,  under  the  blue  sky  and 
the  stars  of  heaven.  Giving  due  reverence  to 
the  Law  and  the  Prophets — the  religion  of  his 
people  and  his  own  early  religion — but  in 
spirit  and  in  discriminating  thought  so  far 
transcending  them,  that  the  people  marvelled 
at  his  teachings  and  said — surely  this  a  prophet 
come  from  God;  no  man  ever  spoke  to  us  as 
he  speaks.  By  the  ineffable  beauty  of  his  life 
and  the  love  and  the  winsomeness  of  his  per- 
sonality, and  by  the  power  of  the  truths  that 
he  taught,  he  won  the  hearts  of  the  common 
people.  They  followed  him  and  his  following 
continually  increased. 

Through  it  all,  however,  he  incurred  the  in- 
creasing hostility  and  the  increasing  hatred 
of  the  leaders,  the  hierarchy  of  the  existing 
religious  organisation.  They  were  animated 
by  a  double  motive,  that  of  protecting  them- 
selves, and  that  of  protecting  their  established 
religion.  But  in  their  slavery  to  the  organisa- 
tion, and  because  unable  to  see  that  it  was 
the  spirit  of  true  religion  that  he  brought  and 


i48    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

taught,  they  cruelly  put  him  to  death — the 
same  as  the  organisation  established  later  on 
in  his  name,  put  numbers  of  God's  true  proph- 
ets, Jesus'  truest  disciples  to  death,  and  essen- 
tially for  the  same  reasons. 

Jesus'  quick  and  almost  unerring  perception 
enabled  him  to  foresee  this.  It  did  not  deter 
him  from  going  forward  with  his  message, 
standing  resolutely  and  superbly  by  his  reve- 
lation, and  at  the  last  almost  courting  death — 
feeling  undoubtedly  that  the  sealing  of  his  rev- 
elation and  message  with  his  very  life  blood 
would  but  serve  to  give  it  its  greatest  power 
and  endurance.  Heroically  he  met  the  fate 
that  he  perceived  was  conspiring  to  end  his 
career,  to  wreck  his  teachings  and  his  influ- 
ence. He  went  forth  to  die  clear-sighted  and 
unafraid. 

He  died  for  the  sake  of  the  truth  of  the  mes- 
sage that  he  lived  and  so  diligently  and  hero- 
ically laboured  for — the  message  of  the  in- 
effable love  of  God  for  all  His  children  and 
the  bringing  of  them  into  the  Father's  King- 
dom. And  we  must  believe  from  his  whole 
life's  teaching,  not  to  save  their  souls  from 
some  future  punishment;  not  through  any  de- 
mand of  satisfaction  on  the  part  of  God;  not 
as  any  substitutionary  sacrifice  to  appease  the 
demands  of  an  angry  God — for  it  was  the  ex- 
act opposite  of  this  that  his  whole  life  teach- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    149 

ing  endeavoured  to  make  known.  It  was  su- 
premely the  love  of  the  Father  and  His  longing 
for  the  love  and  allegiance,  therefore  the  com- 
plete life  and  service  of  His  children.  It  was 
the  beauty  of  holiness — the  beauty  of  whole- 
ness— the  wholeness  of  life,  the  saving  of  the 
whole  life  from  the  sin  and  sordidness  of  self 
and  thereby  giving  supreme  satisfaction  to 
God.  It  was  love,  not  fear.  If  not,  then  al- 
most in  a  moment  he  changed  the  entire  pur- 
pose and  content,  the  entire  intent  of  all  his 
previous  life  work.  This  is  unthinkable. 

In  his  last  act  he  did  not  abrogate  his  own 
expressed  statement,  that  the  very  essence  of 
his  message  was  expressed,  as  love  to  God  and 
love  to  one's  neighbour.  He  did  not  abrogate 
his  continually  repeated  declaration  that  it 
was  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteous- 
ness, which  brings  man's  life  into  right  rela- 
tions with  God  and  into  right  relations  with 
his  fellow-men,  that  it  was  his  purpose  to  re- 
veal and  to  draw  all  men  to,  thereby  aiding 
God's  eternal  purpose — to  establish  in  this 
world  a  state  which  he  designated  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  wherein  a  social  order  of 
brotherliness  and  justice,  wrought  and  main- 
tained through  the  potency  of  love,  would  pre- 
vail. In  doing  this  he  revealed  the  character 
of  God  by  being  himself  an  embodiment  of  it. 

It  was  the  power  of  a  truth  that  was  to  save 


i5o    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

the  life  that  he  was  always  concerned  with. 
Therefore  his  statement  that  the  Son  of  Man 
has  come  that  men  might  have  life  and  might 
have  it  more  abundantly — to  save  men  from 
sin  and  from  failure,  and  secondarily  from 
their  consequences;  to  make  them  true  Sons 
of  God  and  fit  subjects  and  fit  workers  in  His 
Kingdom.  Conversion  according  to  Jesus  is 
the  fact  of  this  Divine  rule  in  the  mind  and 
heart  whereby  the  life  is  saved — the  saving 
of  the  soul  follows.  It  is  the  direct  concomi- 
tant of  the  saved  life. 

In  his  death  he  sealed  his  own  statement: 
"  The  law  and  the  prophets  were  until  John ; 
since  that  time  the  Kingdom  of  God  is 
preached,  and  every  man  presseth  into  it." 
Through  his  death  he  sealed  the  message  of 
his  life  when  putting  it  in  another  form  he 
said :  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  He  that 
heareth  my  word  and  believeth  on  Him  that 
sent  me  hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall  not 
come  into  condemnation:  but  is  passed  from 
death  unto  life." 

In  this  majestic  life  divinity  and  humanity 
meet.  Here  is  the  incarnation.  The  first  of 
the  race  consciously,  vividly,  and  fully  to 
realise  that  God  incarnates  Himself  and  has 
His  abode  in  the  hearts  and  the  lives  of  men, 
the  first  therefore  to  realise  his  Divine  Son- 
ship  and  become  able  thereby  to  reveal  and  to 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    151 

teach  the  Divine  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
Divine  Sonship  of  Man. 

In  this  majestic  life  is  the  atonement,  the 
realisation  of  the  at-one-ment  of  the  Divine  in 
the  human,  made  manifest  in  his  own  life  and 
in  the  way  that  he  taught,  sealed  then  by  his 
own  blood. 

In  this  majestic  life  we  have  the  mediator, 
the  medium  or  connector  of  the  Divine  and  the 
human.  In  it  we  have  the  Saviour,  the  very 
incarnation  of  the  truth  that  he  taught,  and 
that  lifts  the  minds  and  thereby  the  lives  of 
men  up  to  their  Divine  ideal  and  pattern,  that 
redeems  their  lives  from  the  sordidness  and 
selfishness  and  sin  of  the  hitherto  purely  ma- 
terial self,  and  that  being  thereby  saved,  makes 
them  fit  subjects  for  the  Father's  Kingdom. 

In  this  majestic  life  is  the  full  embodiment 
of  the  beauty  of  holiness — whose  words  have 
gone  forth  and  whose  spirit  is  ceaselessly  at 
work  in  the  world,  drawing  men  and  women 
up  to  their  divine  ideal,  and  -that  will  continue 
so  to  draw  all  in  proportion  as  his  words  of 
truth  and  his  life  are  lifted  up  throughout  the 
world. 


X 


SOME  METHODS  OF  ATTAINMENT 

After  this  study  of  the  teachings  of  the  Di- 
vine Master  let  us  know  this.  It  is  the  ma- 
terial that  is  the  transient,  the  temporary; 
and  the  mental  and  spiritual  that  is  the  real 
and  the  eternal.  We  must  not  become  slaves 
to  habit.  The  material  alone  can  never  bring 
happiness — much  less  satisfaction.  These  lie 
deeper.  That  conversation  between  Jesus  and 
the  rich  young  man  is  full  of  significance  for 
us  all,  especially  in  this  ambitious,  striving, 
restless  age. 

Abundance  of  life  is  determined  not  alone 
by  one's  material  possessions,  but  primarily  by 
one's  riches  of  mind  and  spirit.  A  world  of 
truth  is  contained  in  these  words :  "  Life  is 
what  we  are  alive  to.  It  is  not  a  length,  but 
breadth.  To  be  alive  only  to  appetite,  pleas- 
ure, mere  luxury  or  idleness,  pride  or  money- 
making,  and  not  to  goodness  and  kindness, 
purity  and  love,  history,  poetry,  and  music, 
flowers,  God  and  eternal  hopes,  is  to  be  all 
but  dead." 

Why  be  so  eager  to  gain  possession  of  the 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    153 

hundred  thousand  or  the  half-million  acres, 
of  so  many  millions  of  dollars?  Soon,  and  it 
may  be  before  you  realise  it,  all  must  be  left. 
It  is  as  if  a  man  made  it  his  ambition  to  ac- 
cumulate a  thousand  or  a  hundred  thousand 
automobiles.  All  soon  will  become  junk.  But 
so  it  is  with  all  material  things  beyond 
what  we  can  actually  and  profitably  use  for 
our  good  and  the  good  of  others — and  that  we 
actually  do  so  use. 

A  man  can  eat  just  so  many  meals  during 
the  year  or  during  life.  If  he  tries  to  eat  more 
he  suffers  thereby.  He  can  wear  only  so  many 
suits  of  clothing ;  if  he  tries  to  wear  more,  he 
merely  wears  himself  out  taking  off  and  put- 
ting on.  Again  it  is  as  Jesus  said :  "  For  what 
shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  life?  "  And  right  there 
is  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter.  All  the  time 
spent  in  accumulating  these  things  beyond  the 
reasonable  amount,  is  so  much  taken  from 
the  life — from  the  things  of  the  mind  and  the 
spirit.  It  is  in  the  development  and  the  pur- 
suit of  these  that  all  true  satisfaction  lies. 
Elemental  law  has  so  decreed. 

We  have  made  wonderful  progress,  or  rather 
have  developed  wonderful  skill  in  connection 
with  things.  We  need  now  to  go  back  and 
catch  up  the  thread  and  develop  like  skill  in 
making  the  life. 


154    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

Little  wonder  that  brains  are  addled,  that 
nerves  are  depleted,  that  nervous  dyspepsia, 
that  chronic  weariness,  are  not  the  exception 
but  rather  the  rule.  Little  wonder  that  sani- 
tariums are  always  full;  that  asylums  are  full 
and  overflowing — and  still  more  to  be  built. 
No  wonder  that  so  many  men,  so  many  good 
men  break  and  go  to  pieces,  and  so  many  lose 
the  life  here  at  from  fifty  to  sixty  years,  when 
they  should  be  in  the  very  prime  of  life,  in  the 
full  vigour  of  manhood ;  at  the  very  age  when 
they  are  capable  of  enjoying  life  the  most 
and  are  most  capable  of  rendering  the 
greatest  service  to  their  fellows,  to  their 
community,  because  of  greater  growth,  ex- 
perience, means,  and  therefore  leisure.  Jesus 
was  right— What  doth  it  profit?  And  think 
of  the  real  riches  that  in  the  meantime  are 
missed. 

It  is  like  an  addled-brain  driver  in  making 
a  trip  across  the  continent.  He  is  possessed, 
obsessed  with  the  insane  desire  of  making  a 
record.  He  plunges  on  and  on  night  and  day, 
good  weather  and  foul — and  all  the  time  he  is 
missing  all  the  beauties,  all  the  benefits  to 
health  and  spirit  along  the  way.  He  has  none 
of  these  when  he  arrives — he  has  missed  them 
all.  He  has  only  the  fact  that  he  has  made  a 
record  drive — or  nearly  made  one.  And  those 
with  him  he  has  not  only  robbed  of  the  beau- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    155 

ties  along  the  way;  but  he  has  subjected 
them  to  all  the  discomforts  along  the  way. 
And  what  really  underlies  the  making  of 
a  record?  It  is  primarily  the  spirit  of 
vanity. 

When  the  mental  beauties  of  life,  when  the 
spiritual  verities  are  sacrificed  by  self-surren- 
der to  and  domination  by  the  material,  one  of 
the  heavy  penalties  that  inexorable  law  im- 
poses is  the  drying  up,  so  to  speak,  of  the  finer 
human  perceptions — the  very  faculties  of  en- 
joyment. It  presents  to  the  world  many  times, 
and  all  unconscious  to  himself,  a  stunted, 
shrivelled  human  being — that  eternal  type  that 
the  Master  had  in  mind  when  he  said :  "  Thou 
fool,  this  night  shall  thy  soul  be  required  of 
thee."  He  whose  sole  employment  or  even 
whose  primary  employment  becomes  the  build- 
ing of  bigger  and  still  bigger  barns  to  take 
care  of  his  accumulated  grain,  becomes  in- 
capable of  realising  that  life  and  the  things 
that  pertain  to  it  are  of  infinitely  more  value 
than  barns,  or  houses,  or  acres,  or  stocks,  or 
bonds,  or  railroad  ties.  These  all  have  their 
place,  all  are  of  value;  but  they  can  never  be 
made  the  life.  A  recent  poem  by  James  Op- 
penheim  presents  a  type  that  is  known  to 
nearly  every  one :  * 

*"War   and   Laughter,"   by  James   Oppenheim — 
The  Century  Company,  New  York. 


iS6    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

I  heard  the  preacher  preaching  at  the  funeral: 
He  moved  the  relatives  to  tears  telling  them 

of  the  father,  husband,  and  friend  that  was 

dead: 

Of  the  sweet  memories  left  behind  him: 
Of  a  life  that  was  good  and  kind. 

I  happened  to  know  the  man, 
And  I  wondered  whether  the  relatives  would 
have  wept  if  the  preacher  had  told  the  truth : 
Let  us  say  like  this: 

"The  only  good  thing  this  man  ever  did  in  his 
life, 

Was  day  before  yesterday: 

He  died  .  .  . 

But  he  didn't  even  do  that  of  his  own  voli- 
tion .  .  . 

He  was  the  meanest  man  in  business  on  Man- 
hattan Island, 

The  most  treacherous  friend,  the  crudest  and 
stingiest  husband, 

And  a  father  so  hard  that  his  children  left 
home  as  soon  as  they  were  old  enough  .  .  . 

Of  course  he  had  divinity:  everything  human 
has: 

But  he  kept  it  so  carefully  hidden  away  that  he 
might  just  as  well  not  have  had  it  ... 

"  Wife !  good  cheer !  now  you  can  go  your  own 
way  and  live  your  own  life! 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    157 

Children,  give  praise!  you  have  his  money: 
the  only  good  thing  he  ever  gave  you  .  .  . 

Friends!  you  have  one  less  traitor  to  deal 
with  .  .  . 

This  is  indeed  a  day  of  rejoicing  and  exulta- 
tion! 

Thank  God  this  man  is  dead !  " 

An  unknown  enjoyment  and  profit  to  him 
is  the  world's  great  field  of  literature,  the 
world's  great  thinkers,  the  inspirers  of  so 
many  through  all  the  ages.  That  splendid 
verse  by  Emily  Dickinson  means  as  much  to 
him  as  it  would  to  a  dumb  stolid  ox: 

He  ate  and  drank  the  precious  words, 

His  spirit  grew  robust, 
He  knew  no  more  that  he  was  poor, 

Nor  that  his  frame  was  dust; 
He  danced  along  the  dingy  days, 

And  this  bequest  of  wings 
Was  but  a  book !    What  liberty 

A  loosened  spirit  brings! 

Yes,  life  and  its  manifold  possibilities  of  un- 
foldment  and  avenues  of  enjoyment — life,  and 
the  things  that  pertain  to  it — is  an  infinitely 
greater  thing  than  the  mere  accessories  of  life. 

What  infinite  avenues  of  enjoyment,  what 
peace  of  mind,  what  serenity  of  soul  may  be 


158    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

the  possession  of  all  men  and  all  women  who 
are  alive  to  the  inner  possibilities  of  life  as  por- 
trayed by  our  own  prophet,  Emerson,  when 
he  said: 

Oh,  when  I  am  safe  in  my  sylvan  home, 
I  tread  on  the  pride  of  Greece  and  Rome; 
And  when  I  am  stretched  beneath  the  pines, 
Where  the  evening  star  so  holy  shines, 
I  laugh  at  the  lore  and  pride  of  man, 
At  the  Sophist  schools  and  the  learned  clan; 
For  what  are  they  all  in  their  high  conceit, 
When  man  in  the  bush  with  God  may  meet? 

It  was  he  who  has  exerted  such  a  world-wide 
influence  upon  the  minds  and  lives  of  men  and 
women  who  also  said :  "  Great  men  are  they 
who  see  that  spirituality  is  stronger  than  any 
material  force:  that  thoughts  rule  the  world." 
And  this  is  true  not  only  of  the  world  in  gen- 
eral, but  it  is  true  likewise  in  regard  to  the 
individual  life. 

One  of  the  great  secrets  of  all  successful 
living  is  unquestionably  the  striking  of  the 
right  balance  in  life.  The  material  has  its 
place — and  a  very  important  place.  Fools  in- 
deed were  we  to  ignore  or  to  attempt  to  ig- 
nore this  fact.  We  cannot,  however,  except 
to  our  detriment,  put  the  cart  before  the 
horse.  Things  may  contribute  to  happiness, 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    159 

but  things  cannot  bring  happiness — and  sad 
indeed,  and  crippled  and  dwarfed  and  stunted 
becomes  the  life  of  every  one  who  is  not  capa- 
ble of  realising  this  fact.  Eternally  true  in- 
deed is  it  that  the  life  is  more  than  meat  and 
the  body  more  than  raiment. 

All  life  is  from  an  inner  centre  outward. 
As  within,  so  without.  As  we  think  we  be- 
come. Which  means  simply  this:  our  pre- 
vailing thoughts  and  emotions  are  never  static, 
but  dynamic.  Thoughts  are  forces — like  cre- 
ates like,  and  like  attracts  like.  It  is  therefore 
for  us  to  choose  whether  we  shall  be  inter- 
ested primarily  in  the  great  spiritual  forces 
and  powers  of  life,  or  whether  we  shall  be  in- 
terested solely  in  the  material  things  of  life. 

But  there  is  a  wonderful  law  which  we  must 
not  lose  sight  of.  It  is  to  the  effect  that  when 
we  become  sufficiently  alive  to  the  inner  pow- 
ers and  forces,  to  the  inner  springs  of  life,  the 
material  things  of  life  will  not  only  follow  in  a 
natural  and  healthy  sequence,  but  they  will 
also  assume  their  right  proportions.  They  will 
take  their  right  places. 

It  was  the  recognition  of  this  great  funda- 
mental fact  of  life  that  Jesus  had  in  mind  when 
he  said:  "But  rather  seek  ye  the  kingdom  of 
God;  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you," — meaning,  as  he  so  distinctly  stated,  the 
kingdom  of  the  mind  and  spirit  made  open  and 


160    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

translucent  to  the  leading  of  the  Divine  Wis- 
dom inherent  in  the  human  soul,  when  that 
leading  is  sought  and  when  through  the  right 
ordering  of  the  mind  we  make  the  conditions 
whereby  it  may  become  operative  in  the  in- 
dividual life. 

The  great  value  of  God  as  taught  by  Jesus 
is  that  God  dwells  in  us.  It  is  truly  Emman- 
uel— God  with  us.  The  law  must  be  observed 
— the  conditions  must  be  met.  "  The  Lord  is 
with  you  while  ye  be  with  him;  and  if  ye  will 
seek  him,  he  will  be  found  of  you."  "  The 
spirit  of  the  living  God  dwelleth  in  you."  "  If 
any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God, 
that  giveth  to  all  men  liberally,  and  upbraideth 
not;  and  it  shall  be  given  him.  But  let  him 
ask  in  faith,  nothing  wavering."  That  there 
is  a  Divine  law  underlying  prayer  that  helps 
to  release  the  inner  springs  of  wisdom,  which 
in  turn  leads  to  power,  was  well  known  to 
Jesus,  for  his  life  abundantly  proved  it. 

His  great  aptitude  for  the  things  of  the  spirit 
enabled  him  intuitively  to  realise  this,  to  un- 
derstand it,  to  use  it.  And  there  was  no  mys- 
tery, no  secret,  no  subterfuge  on  the  part  of 
Jesus  as  to  the  source  of  his  power.  In  clear 
and  unmistakable  words  he  made  it  known — 
and  why  should  he  not?  It  was  the  truth, 
the  truth  of  this  inner  kingdom  that  would 
make  men  free  that  he  came  to  reveal.  "  The 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    161 

words  that  I  speak  unto  you  I  speak  not  of 
myself:  but  the  Father  that  dwelleth  in  me, 
he  doeth  the  works."  "  My  Father  worketh 
hitherto  and  I  work.  .  .  .  For  as  the  Father 
hath  life  in  himself;  so  hath  he  given  to  the 
Son  to  have  life  in  himself.  ...  I  can  of  mine 
own  self  do  nothing."  As  he  followed  the  con- 
ditions whereby  this  higher  illumination  can 
come  so  must  we. 

The  injunction  that  Jesus  gave  in  regard  to 
prayer  is  unquestionably  the  method  that  he 
found  so  effective  and  that  he  himself  used. 
How  many  times  we  are  told  that  he  withdrew 
to  the  mountain  for  his  quiet  period,  for  com- 
munion with  the  Father,  that  the  realisation 
of  his  oneness  with  God  might  be  preserved 
intact.  In  this  continual  realisation — I  and  my 
Father  are  one — lay  his  unusual  insight  and 
power.  And  his  distinct  statement  which  he 
made  in  speaking  of  his  own  powers — as  I  am 
ye  shall  be — shows  clearly  the  possibilities  of 
human  unfoldment  and  attainment,  since  he 
realised  and  lived  and  then  revealed  the  way. 

Were  not  this  Divine  source  of  wisdom  and 
power  the  heritage  of  every  human  soul,  dis- 
tinctly untrue  then  would  be  Jesus'  saying: 
"  For  every  one  that  asketh,  receiveth ;  and  he 
that  seeketh,  findeth;  and  to  him  that  knock- 
eth,  it  shall  be  opened."  Infinitely  better  is  it 
to  know  that  one  has  this  inner  source  of 


162    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

guidance  and  wisdom  which  as  he  opens  himself 
to  it  becomes  continually  more  distinct,  more 
clear  and  more  unerring  in  its  guidance,  than 
to  be  continually  seeking  advice  from  outside 
sources,  and  being  confused  in  regard  to  the 
advice  given.  This  is  unquestionably  the  way 
of  the  natural  and  the  normal  life,  made  so 
simple  and  so  plain  by  Jesus,  and  that  was 
foreshadowed  by  Isaiah  when  he  said :  "  Hast 
thou  not  known?  Hast  thou  not  heard  that 
the  everlasting  God,  the  Lord,  the  Creator  of 
the  ends  of  the  earth  fainteth  not,  neither  is 
weary?  He  giveth  power  to  the  faint  and  to 
them  that  have  no  might  he  increaseth 
strength.  Even  the  youths  shall  faint  and  be 
weary,  and  the  young  men  shall  utterly  fall. 
But  they  that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew 
their  strength;  they  shall  mount  up  with 
wings  as  eagles;  they  shall  run,  and  not  be 
weary;  they  shall  walk,  and  not  faint." 

Not  that  problems  and  trials  will  not  come. 
They  will  come.  There  never  has  been  and 
there  never  will  be  a  life  free  from  them.  Life 
isn't  conceivable  on  any  other  terms.  But  the 
wonderful  source  of  consolation  and  strength, 
the  source  that  gives  freedom  from  worry  and 
freedom  from  fear  is  the  realisation  of  the  fact 
that  the  guiding  force  and  the  moulding  power 
is  within  us.  It  becomes  active  and  controll- 
ing in  the  degree  that  we  realise  and  in  the  de- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    163 

gree  that  we  are  able  to  open  ourselves  so 
that  the  Divine  intelligence  and  power  can 
speak  to  and  can  work  through  us. 

Judicious  physical  exercise  induces  greater 
bodily  strength  and  vigour.  An  active  and 
alert  mental  life,  in  other  words  mental  ac- 
tivity, induces  greater  intellectual  power.  And 
under  the  same  general  law  the  same  is  true 
in  regard  to  the  development  and  the  use  of 
spiritual  power.  It,  however,  although  the 
most  important  of  all  because  it  has  to  do  more 
fundamentally  with  the  life  itself,  we  are  most 
apt  to  neglect.  The  losses,  moreover,  result- 
ing from  this  neglect  are  almost  beyond  cal- 
culation. 

To  establish  one's  centre  aright  is  to  make 
all  of  life's  activities  and  events  and  results 
flow  from  this  centre  in  orderly  sequence.  A 
modern  writer  of  great  insight  has  said :  "  The 
understanding  that  God  is,  and  all  there  is, 
will  establish  you  upon  a  foundation  from 
which  you  can  never  be  moved."  To  know 
that  the  power  that  is  God  is  the  power  that 
works  in  us  is  knowledge  of  transcendent  im- 
port. 

To  know  that  the  spirit  of  Infinite  wisdom 
and  power  which  is  the  creating,  the  moving, 
and  the  sustaining  force  in  all  life,  thinks  and 
acts  in  and  through  us  as  our  own  very  life, 
in  the  degree  that  we  consciously  and  delib- 


164    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

erately  desire  it  to  become  the  guiding  and  the 
animating  force  in  our  lives,  and  open  our- 
selves fully  to  its  leadings,  and  follow  its  lead- 
ings, is  to  attain  to  that  state  of  conscious 
oneness  with  the  Divine  that  Jesus  realised, 
lived  and  revealed,  and  that  he  taught  as  the 
method  of  the  natural  and  the  normal  life  for 
all  men. 

We  are  so  occupied  with  the  matters  of  the 
sense-life  that  all  unconsciously  we  become 
dominated,  ruled  by  the  things  of  the  senses. 
Now  in  the  real  life  there  is  the  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  the  springs  of  life  are  all 
from  within,  and  that  the  inner  always  leads 
and  rules  the  outer.  Under  the  elemental  law 
of  Cause  and  Effect  this  is  always  done — 
whether  we  are  conscious  of  it  or  not.  But 
the  difference  lies  here:  The  master  of  life 
consciously  and  definitely  allies  himself  in 
mind  and  spirit  with  the  great  central  Force 
and  rules  his  world  from  within.  The  creature 
of  circumstances,  through  lack  of  desire  or 
through  weakness  of  will,  fails  to  do  this,  and, 
lacking  guiding  and  directing  force,  drifts  and 
becomes  thereby  the  creature  of  circumstance. 

One  of  deep  insight  has  said :  "  That  we  do 
not  spontaneously  see  and  know  God,  as  we 
see  and  know  one  another,  and  so  manifest 
the  God-nature  as  we  do  the  sense-nature,  is 
because  that  nature  is  yet  latent,  and  in  a 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    165 

sense  slumbering  within  us.  Yet  the  God- 
nature  within  us  connects  us  as  directly  and 
vitally  with  the  Being  and  Kingdom  of  God 
within,  behind,  and  above  the  world,  as  does 
the  sense-nature  with  the  world  external  to  us. 
Hence  as  the  sense-consciousness  was  awak- 
ened and  established  by  the  recognition  of  and 
communication  with  the  outward  world 
through  the  senses,  so  the  God-consciousness 
must  be  awakened  by  the  corresponding  recog- 
nition of,  and  communication  with  the  Being 
and  Kingdom  of  God  through  intuition — the 
spiritual  sense  of  the  inner  man.  .  .  .  Tke  true 
prayer — the  prayer  of  silence — is  the  only  door 
that  opens  the  soul  to  the  direct  revelation  of 
God,  and  brings  thereby  the  realisation  of  the 
God-nature  in  ourselves." 

As  the  keynote  to  the  world  of  sense  is 
activity,  so  the  keynote  to  spiritual  light  and 
power  is  quiet.  The  individual  consciousness 
must  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the  Cos- 
mic consciousness.  Paul  speaks  of  the  "  sons 
of  God."  And  in  a  single  sentence  he  describes 
what  he  means  by  the  term — "  For  as  many 
as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the 
sons  of  God."  An  older  prophet  has  said: 
"  The  Lord  in  the  midst  of  thee  is  mighty." 
Jesus  with  his  deep  insight  perceived  the  iden- 
tity of  his  real  life  with  the  Divine  life,  the  in- 
dwelling Wisdom  and  Power, — the  "  Father 


166    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

in  me."  The  whole  course  of  his  ministry  was 
his  attempt  "  to  show  those  who  listened  to 
him  how  he  was  related  to  the  Father,  and  to 
teach  them  that  they  were  related  to  the  same 
Father  in  exactly  the  same  way." 

There  is  that  within  man  that  is  illumined 
and  energised  through  the  touch  of  His  spirit. 
We  can  bring  our  minds  into  rapport,  into  such 
harmony  and  connection  with  the  infinite  Di- 
vine mind  that  it  speaks  in  us,  directs  us,  and 
therefore  acts  through  us  as  our  own  selves. 
Through  this  connection  we  become  illumined 
by  Divine  wisdom  and  we  become  energised 
by  Divine  power.  It  is  ours,  then,  to  act  un- 
der the  guidance  of  this  higher  wisdom  and 
in  all  forms  of  expression  to  act  and  to  work 
augmented  by  this  higher  power.  The  finite 
spirit,  with  all  its  limitations,  becomes  at  its 
very  centre  in  rapport  with  Infinite  spirit,  its 
Source.  The  finite  thereby  becomes  the  chan- 
nel through  which  the  Infinite  can  and  does 
work. 

To  use  an  apt  figure,  it  is  the  moving  of  the 
switch  whereby  we  connect  our  wires  as  it 
were  with  the  central  dynamo  which  is  the 
force  that  animates,  that  gives  and  sustains 
life  in  the  universe.  It  is  making  actual  the 
proposition  that  was  enunciated  by  Emerson 
when  he  said :  "  Every  soul  is  not  only  the 
inlet,  but  may  become  the  outlet  of  all  there 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    167 

is  in  God."  Significant  also  in  this  connection 
is  his  statement :  "  The  only  sin  is  limitation." 
It  is  the  actualising  of  the  fact  that  in  Him 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,  with  its 
inevitable  resultant  that  we  become  "  strong 
in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  His  might." 
There  is  perhaps  no  more  valuable  way  of 
realising  this  end,  than  to  adopt  the  practice 
of  taking  a  period  each  day  for  being  alone 
in  the  quiet,  a  half  hour,  even  a  quarter  hour; 
stilling  the  bodily  senses  and  making  oneself 
receptive  to  the  higher  leadings  of  the  spirit 
— receptive  to  the  impulses  of  the  soul.  This 
is  following  the  master's  practice  and  example 
of  communion  with  the  Father.  Things  in 
this  universe  and  in  human  life  do  not  happen. 
All  is  law  and  sequence.  The  elemental  law 
of  cause  and  effect  is  universal  and  unvarying. 
In  the  realm  of  spirit  law  is  as  definite  as 
in  the  realm  of  mechanics — in  the  realm  of  all 
material  forces. 

If  we  would  have  the  leading  of  the  spirit, 
if  we  would  perceive  the  higher  intuitions  and 
be  led  intuitively,  bringing  the  affairs  of  the 
daily  life  thereby  into  the  Divine  sequence,  we 
must  observe  the  conditions  whereby  these 
leadings  can  come  to  us,  and  in  time  become 
habitual. 

The  law  of  the  spirit  is  quiet — to  be  fol- 
lowed by  action — but  quiet,  the  more  readily 


168    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

to  come  into  a  state  of  harmony  with  the  In- 
finite Intelligence  that  works  through  us,  and 
that  leads  us  as  our  own  intelligence  when 
through  desire  and  through  will,  we  are  able 
to  bring  our  subconscious  minds  into  such 
attunement  that  it  can  act  through  us,  and  we 
are  able  to  catch  its  messages  and  follow  its 
direction.  But  to  listen  and  to  observe  the 
conditions  whereby  we  can  listen  is  essential. 

Jesus'  own  words  as  well  as  his  practice 
apply  here.  After  his  admonition  against 
public  prayer,  or  prayer  for  show,  or  prayer 
of  much  speaking,  he  said :  "  But  thou,  when 
thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when 
thou  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father 
which  is  in  secret ;  and  thy  Father  which  seeth 
in  secret,  shall  reward  thee  openly."  Now 
there  are  millions  of  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren in  the  world  who  have  no  closets.  There 
are  great  numbers  of  others  who  have  no 
access  to  them  sometimes  for  days,  or  weeks, 
or  months  at  a  time.  It  is  evident,  therefore, 
that  in  the  word  that  has  been  rendered  closet 
he  meant — enter  into  the  quiet  recesses  of 
your  own  soul  that  you  may  thus  hold  com- 
munion with  the  Father. 

Now  the  value  of  prayer  is  not  that  God 
will  change  or  order  any  laws  or  forces  to 
suit  the  numerous  and  necessarily  the  diverse 
petitions  of  any.  All  things  are  through  law, 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    169 

and  law  is  fixed  and  inexorable.  The  value  of 
prayer,  of  true  prayer,  is  that  through  it  one 
can  so  harmonise  his  life  with  the  Divine 
order  that  intuitive  perceptions  of  truth  and 
a  greater  perception  and  knowledge  of  law 
becomes  his  possession.  As  has  been  said  by 
an  able  contemporary  thinker  and  writer: 
"  We  cannot  form  a  passably  thorough  notion 
of  man  without  saturating  it  through  and 
through  with  the  idea  of  a  cosmic  inflow  from 
outside  his  world  life — the  inflow  of  God. 
Without  a  large  consciousness  of  the  universe 
beyond  our  knowledge,  few  men,  if  any,  have 
done  great  things.* 

I  shall  always  remember  with  great  pleasure 
and  profit  a  call  a  few  days  ago  from  Dr. 
Edward  Emerson  of  Concord,  Emerson's 
eldest  son.  Happily  I  asked  him  in  regard 
to  his  father's  methods  of  work — if  he  had  any 
regular  methods.  He  replied  in  substance: 
"  It  was  my  father's  custom  to  go  daily  to  the 
woods — to  listen.  He  would  remain  there  an 
hour  or  more  in  order  to  get  whatever  there 
might  be  for  him  that  day.  He  would  then 
come  home  and  write  into  a  little  book — his 
'  day-book ' — what  he  had  gotten.  Later  on 
when  it  came  time  to  write  a  book,  he  would 
transcribe  from  this,  in  their  proper  sequence 
and  with  their  proper  connections,  these  en- 

*  Henry  Holt  in  "Cosmic  Relations." 


170    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

trances  of  the  preceding  weeks  or  months. 
The  completed  book  became  virtually  a  ledger 
formed  or  posted  from  his  day-books." 

The  prophet  is  he  who  so  orders  his  life  that 
he  can  adequately  listen  to  the  voice,  the 
revelations  of  the  over  soul,  and  who  truthfully 
transcribes  what  he  hears  or  senses.  He  is 
not  a  follower  of  custom  or  of  tradition.  He 
can  never  become  and  can  never  be  made  the 
subservient  tool  of  an  organisation.  His  aim 
and  his  mission  is  rather  to  free  men  from 
ignorance,  superstition,  credulity,  from  half 
truths,  by  leading  them  into  a  continually 
larger  understanding  of  truth,  of  law — and 
therefore  of  righteousness. 

It  was  more  than  a  mere  poetic  idea  that 
Lowell  gave  utterance  to  when  he  said: 

The  thing  we  long  for,  that  we  are 
For  one  transcendent  moment. 

To  establish  this  connection,  to  actualise 
this  God-consciousness,  that  it  may  not  be  for 
one  transcendent  moment,  but  that  it  may  be- 
come constant  and  habitual,  so  that  every 
thought  arises,  and  so  that  every  act  goes 
forth  from  this  centre,  is  the  greatest  good  that 
can  come  into  the  possession  of  man.  There  is 
nothing  greater.  It  is  none  other  than  the 
realisation  of  Jesus'  injunction — "  Seek  ye  first 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    171 

the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness, 
and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you." 
It  is  then  that  he  said — Do  not  worry  about 
your  life.  Your  mind  and  your  will  are  under 
the  guidance  of  the  Divine  mind;  your  every 
act  goes  out  under  this  direction  and  all  things 
pertaining  to  your  life  will  fall  into  their  proper 
places.  Therefore  do  not  worry  about  your 
life. 

When  a  man  finds  his  centre,  when  he  be- 
comes centred  in  the  Infinite,  then  redemption 
takes  place.  He  is  redeemed  from  the  bond- 
age of  the  senses.  He  lives  thereafter  under 
the  guidance  of  the  spirit,  and  this  is  salvation. 
It  is  a  new  life  that  he  has  entered  into.  He 
lives  in  a  new  world,  because  his  outlook  is 
entirely  new.  He  is  living  now  in  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven.  Heaven  means  harmony. 
He  has  brought  his  own  personal  mind  and 
life  into  harmony  with  the  Divine  mind  and 
life.  He  becomes  a  coworker  with  God. 

It  is  through  such  men  and  women  that 
God's  plans  and  purposes  are  carried  out. 
They  not  only  hear  but  they  interpret  for 
others  God's  voice.  They  are  the  prophets  of 
our  time  and  the  prophets  of  all  time.  They 
are  doing  God's  work  in  the  world,  and  in  so 
doing  they  are  finding  their  own  supreme  sat- 
isfaction and  happiness.  They  are  not  looking 
forward  to  the  Eternal  life.  They  realise  that 


172    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

they  are  *iow  in  the  Eternal  life,  and  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  eternal  life  if  this  life  that 
we  are  now  in  is  not  it.  When  the  time  comes 
for  them  to  stop  their  labours  here,  they  look 
forward  without  fear  and  with  anticipation  to 
the  change,  the  transition  to  the  other  form 
of  life — but  not  to  any  other  life.  The  words 
of  Whitman  embody  a  spirit  of  anticipation 
and  of  adventure  for  them: 

Joy,  Shipmate,  joy! 
(Pleas'd  to  my  soul  at  death  I  cry) 
One  life  is  closed,  one  life  begun, 
The  long,  long  anchorage  we  leave, 
The  ship  is  clear  at  last,  she  leaps. 

Joy,  Shipmate,  joy! 

They  have  an  abiding  faith  that  they  will 
take  up  the  other  form  of  life  exactly  where 
they  left  it  off  here.  Being  in  heaven  now 
they  will  be  in  heaven  when  they  awake  to  the 
continuing  beauties  of  the  life  subsequent  to 
their  transition.  Such  we  might  also  say  is 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  regarding  the  highest 
there  is  in  life  here  and  the  best  there  is  in  the 
life  hereafter. 


XI 


SOME  METHODS  OF  EXPRESSION 

The  life  of  the  Spirit,  or,  in  other  words, 
the  true  religious  life,  is  not  a  life  of  mere 
contemplation  or  a  life  of  inactivity.  As 
Fichte,  in  "The  Way  Toward  the  Blessed 
Life,"  has  said :  "  True  religion,  notwithstand- 
ing that  it  raises  the  view  of  those  who  are  in- 
spired by  it  to  its  own  region,  nevertheless, 
retains  their  Life  firmly  in  the  domain  of  ac- 
tion, and  of  right  moral  action.  .  .  .  Religion 
is  not  a  business  by  and  for  itself  which  a 
man  may  practise  apart  from  his  other  occupa- 
tions, perhaps  on  certain  fixed  days  and  hours ; 
but  it  is  the  inmost  spirit  that  penetrates,  in- 
spires, and  pervades  all  our  Thought  and  Ac- 
tion, which  in  other  respects  pursue  their  ap- 
pointed course  without  change  or  interruption. 
That  the  Divine  Life  and  Energy  actually  lives 
in  us  is  inseparable  from  Religion." 

How  thoroughly  this  is  in  keeping  with  the 

thought  of  the  highly  illumined  seer,  Sweden- 

borg,  is  indicated  when  he  says :  "  The  Lord's 

Kingdom  is  a  Kingdom  of  ends  and  uses." 

173 


174    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

And  again :  "  Forsaking  the  world  means  lov- 
ing God  and  the  neighbour;  and  God  is  loved 
when  a  man  lives  according  to  His  command- 
ments, and  the  neighbour  is  loved  when  a  man 
performs  uses."  And  still  again :  "  To  be  of 
use  means  to  desire  the  welfare  of  others  for 
the  sake  of  the  common  good;  and  not  to  be 
of  use  means  to  desire  the  welfare  of  others 
not  for  the  sake  of  the  common  good  but  for 
one's  own  sake.  ...  In  order  that  man  may 
receive  heavenly  life  he  must  live  in  the  world 
and  engage  in  its  business  and  occupations, 
and  thus  by  a  moral  and  civil  life  acquire  spir- 
itual life.  In  no  other  way  can  spiritual  life 
be  generated  in  man,  or  his  spirit  be  prepared 
for  heaven." 

We  hear  much  today  both  in  various  writ- 
ings and  in  public  utterances  of  "  the  spiritual  " 
and  "  the  spiritual  life."  I  am  sure  that  to 
the  great  majority  of  men  and  women  the  term 
spiritual,  or  better,  the  spiritual  life,  means 
something,  but  something  by  no  means  fully 
tangible  or  clear-cut.  I  shall  be  glad  indeed 
if  I  am  able  to  suggest  a  more  comprehensible 
concept  of  it,  or  putting  it  in  another  form 
and  better  perhaps,  to  present  a  more  clear- 
cut  portraiture  of  the  spiritual  life  in  expres- 
sion— in  action. 

And  first  let  us  note  that  in  the  mind  and  in 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  there  is  no  such  thing  as 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    175 

the  secular  life  and  the  religious  life.  His 
ministry  pertained  to  every  phase  of  life.  The 
truth  that  he  taught  was  a  truth  that  was  to 
permeate  every  thought  and  every  act  of  life. 

We  make  our  arbitrary  divisions.  We  are 
too  apt  to  deny  the  fact  that  the  Lord  is  the 
Lord  of  the  week-day,  the  same  as  He  is  the 
Lord  of  the  Sabbath.  Jesus  refused  to  be 
bound  by  any  such  consideration.  He  taught 
that  every  act  that  is  a  good  act,  every  act 
that  is  of  service  to  mankind  is  not  only 
a  legitimate  act  to  be  done  on  the  Sabbath 
day,  but  an  act  that  should  be  performed  on 
the  Sabbath  day.  And  any  act  that  is  not 
right  and  legitimate  for  the  Sabbath  day  is 
neither  right  nor  legitimate  for  the  week-day. 
In  other  words,  it  is  the  spirit  of  righteousness 
that  must  permeate  and  must  govern  every  act 
of  life  and  every  moment  of  life. 

In  seeking  to  define  the  spiritual  life,  it  were 
better  to  regard  the  world  as  the  expression 
of  the  Divine  mind.  The  spirit  is  the  life ;  the 
world  and  all  things  in  it,  the  material  to  be 
moulded,  raised,  and  transmuted  from  the 
lower  to  the  higher.  This  is  indeed  the  law  of 
evolution,  that  has  been  through  all  the  ages 
and  that  today  is  at  work.  It  is  the  God-Power 
that  is  at  work  and  every  form  of  useful  ac- 
tivity that  helps  on  with  this  process  of  lifting 
and  bettering  is  a  form  of  Divine  activity. 


176    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

If  therefore  we  recognise  the  one  Divine 
life  working  in  and  through  all,  the  animating 
force,  therefore  the  Life  of  all,  and  if  we  are 
consciously  helping  in  this  process  we  are 
spiritual  men. 

No  man  of  intelligence  can  fail  to  recog- 
nise the  fact  that  life  is  more  important 
than  things.  Life  is  the  chief  thing,  and 
material  things  are  the  elements  that  min- 
ister to,  that  serve  the  purposes  of  the  life, 
Whoever  does  anything  in  the  world  to  pre- 
serve life,  to  better  its  conditions,  who,  recog- 
nising the  Divine  force  at  work  lifting  life  up 
always  to  better,  finer  conditions,  is  doing 
God's  work  in  the  world — because  cooperating 
with  the  great  Cosmic  world  plan. 

The  ideal,  then,  is  men  and  women  of  the 
spirit,  open  and  responsive  always  to  its  guid- 
ance, recognising  the  Divine  plan  and  the 
Divine  ideal,  working  cooperatively  in  the 
world  to  make  all  conditions  of  life  fairer, 
finer,  more  happy.  He  who  lives  and  works 
not  as  an  individual,  that  is  not  for  his  good 
alone,  but  who  recognises  the  essential  oneness 
of  life — is  carrying  out  his  share  of  the  Divine 
plan. 

A  man  may  be  unusually  gifted ;  he  may  have 
unusual  ability  in  business,  in  administration; 
he  may  be  a  giant  in  finance,  in  administration, 
ibut  if  for  self  alone,  if  lack  of  vision  blinds 


him  to  the  great  Divine  plan,  if  he  does  not 
recognise  his  relative  place  and  value;  if  he 
gains  his  purposes  by  selfishness,  by  climbing 
over  others,  by  indifference  to  human  pain  or 
suffering — oblivious  to  human  welfare — his 
ways  are  the  ways  of  the  jungle.  His  mind 
and  his  life  are  purely  sordid,  grossly  and 
blindly  self-centred — wholly  material.  He 
gains  his  object,  but  by  Divine  law  not  happi- 
ness, not  satisfaction,  not  peace.  He  is  outside 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven — the  kingdom  of  har- 
mony. He  is  living  and  working  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  Divine  mind  that  is  evolving 
a  higher  order  of  life  in  the  world.  He  is 
blind  too,  he  is  working  against  the  Divine 
plan. 

Now  what  is  the  Divine  call?  Can  he  be 
made  into  a  spiritual  man?  Yes.  A  different 
understanding,  a  different  motive,  a  different 
object — then  will  follow  a  difference  in 
methods.  Instead  of  self  alone  he  will  have  a 
sense  of,  he  will  have  a  call  to  service.  And 
this  man,  formerly  a  hinderer  in  the  Divine 
plan,  becomes  a  spiritual  giant.  His  splendid 
powers  and  his  qualities  do  not  need  to  be 
changed.  Merely  his  motives  and  thereby  his 
methods,  and  he  is  changed  into  a  giant  engine 
of  righteousness.  He  is  a  part  of  the  great 
world  force  and  plan.  He  is  doing  his  part 
in  the  great  world  work — he  is  a  coworker 


178    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

with  God.  And  here  lies  salvation.  Saved 
from  self  and  the  dwarfed  and  stunted  condi- 
tion that  will  follow,  his  spiritual  nature  un- 
folds and  envelops  his  entire  life.  His  powers 
and  his  wealth  are  thereafter  to  bless  mankind. 
But  behold !  by  another  great  fundamental  law 
of  life  in  doing  this  he  is  blessed  ten,  a  hun- 
dred, a  millionfold. 

Material  prosperity  is  or  may  become  a  true 
jjain,  a  veritable  blessing.  But  it  can  become 
a  curse  to  the  world  and  still  more  to  its  pos- 
sessor when  made  an  end  in  itself,  and  at  the 
expense  of  all  the  higher  attributes  and  powers 
of  human  life. 

We  have  reason  to  rejoice  that  a  great 
change  of  estimate  has  not  only  begun  but  is 
now  rapidly  creeping  over  the  world.  He  of 
even  a  generation  ago  who  piled  and  piled,  but 
who  remained  ignorant  of  the  more  funda- 
mental laws  of  life,  blind  to  the  law  of  mu- 
tuality and  service,  would  be  regarded  today 
as  a  low,  beastly  type.  I  speak  advisedly.  It 
is  this  obedience  to  the  life  of  the  spirit  that 
Whitman  had  in  mind  when  he  said :  "  And 
whoever  walks  a  furlong  without  sympathy 
walks  to  his  own  funeral  drest  in  his  shroud." 
It  was  the  full  flowering  of  the  law  of  mu- 
tuality and  service  that  he  saw  when  he  said: 
"  I  saw  a  city  invincible  to  the  attacks  of 
the  whole  of  the  rest  of  the  earth.  I  dream'd 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    179 

that  it  was  the  new  City  of  Friends.  Nothing 
was  greater  there  than  the  quality  of  robust 
love;  it  led  the  rest.  It  was  seen  every  hour 
in  the  actions  of  the  men  of  that  city  and  in 
all  their  looks  and  words."  It  is  through 
obedience  to  this  life  of  the  spirit  that  order 
is  brought  out  of  chaos  in  the  life  of  the 
individual  and  in  the  life  of  the  community, 
in  the  business  world,  the  labour  world,  and 
in  our  great  world  relations. 

But  in  either  case,  we  men  and  women  of 
Christendom,  to  be  a  Christian  is  not  only  to 
be  good,  but  to  be  good  for  something.  Ac- 
cording to  the  teachings  of  the  Master  true 
religion  is  not  only  personal  salvation,  but  it 
is  giving  one's  self  through  all  of  one's  best 
efforts  to  actualise  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
here  on  earth.  The  finding  of  the  Kingdom 
is  not  only  personal  but  social  and  world- 
affirming — and  in  the  degree  that  it  becomes 
fully  and  vitally  personal  will  it  become  so. 

A  man  who  is  not  right  with  his  fellow-men 
is  not  right  and  cannot  be  right  with  God. 
This  is  coming  to  be  the  clear-cut  realisa- 
tion of  all  progressive  religious  thought  today. 
Since  men  are  free  from  the  trammels  of  an 
enervating  dogma  that  through  fear  made 
them  seek,  or  rather  that  made  them  contented 
with  religion  as  primarily  a  system  of  rewards 
and  punishments,  they  are  now  awakening  to 


i8o    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

the  fact  that  the  logical  carrying  out  of  Jesus' 
teaching  of  the  Kingdom  is  the  establishing 
here  on  this  earth  of  an  order  of  life  and  hence 
of  a  society  where  greater  love  and  coopera- 
tion and  justice  prevail.  Our  rapidly  growing 
present-day  conception  of  Christianity  makes 
it  not  world-renouncing,  but  world-affirming. 

This  modern  conception  of  the  function  of  a 
true  and  vital  Christianity  makes  it  the  task 
of  the  immediate  future  to  apply  Christianity 
to  trade,  to  commerce,  to  labour  relations,  to 
all  social  relations,  to  international  relations. 
"  And,  in  the  wider  field  of  religious  thought," 
says  a  writer  in  a  great  international  religious 
paper,  "  what  truer  service  can  we  render  than 
to  strip  theology  of  all  that  is  unreal  or  need- 
lessly perplexing,  and  make  it  speak  plainly 
and  humanly  to  people  who  have  their  duty  to 
do  and  their  battle  to  fight?  "  It  makes  in- 
telligent, sympathetic,  and  helpful  living  take 
the  place  of  the  tooth  and  the  claw,  the  growl 
and  the  deadly  hiss  of  the  jungle — all  right  in 
their  places,  but  with  no  place  in  human 
living. 

The  growing  realisation  of  the  interde- 
pendence of  all  life  is  giving  a  new  standard 
of  action  and  attainment,  and  a  new  standard 
of  estimate.  Jesus'  criterion  is  coming  into 
more  universal  appreciation:  He  that  is  great- 
est among  you  shall  be  as  he  who  serves. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    181 

Through  this  fundamental  law  of  life  there 
are  responsibilities  that  cannot  be  evaded  or 
shirked — and  of  him  to  whom  much  is  given 
much  is  required. 

It  was  President  Wilson  who  recently  said: 
"  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  these  obvious  truths 
will  come  to  more  general  acceptance;  that 
honest  business  will  quit  thinking  that  it  is 
attacked  when  loaded-dice  business  is  at- 
tacked ;  that  the  mutuality  of  interest  between 
employer  and  employee  will  receive  ungrudg- 
ing admission ;  and,  finally,  that  men  of  affairs 
will  lend  themselves  more  patriotically  to  the 
work  of  making  democracy  an  efficient  instru- 
ment for  the  promotion  of  human  welfare.  It 
cannot  be  said  that  they  have  done  so  in  the 
past.  ...  As  a  consequence,  many  necessary 
things  have  been  done  less  perfectly  without 
their  assistance  that  could  have  been  done 
more  perfectly  with  their  expert  aid."  He  is 
by  no  means  alone  in  recognising  this  fact. 
Nor  is  he  at  all  blind  to  the  great  change  that 
is  already  taking  place. 

In  a  recent  public  address  in  New  York,  the 
head  of  one  of  the  largest  plants  in  the  world, 
and  who  starting  with  nothing  has  accumu- 
lated a  fortune  of  many  millions,  said :  "  The 
only  thing  I  am  proud  of — prouder  of  than 
that  I  have  amassed  a  great  fortune — is  that 
I  established  the  first  manual  training  school 


182    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

in  Pennsylvania.  The  greatest  delight  of  my 
life  is  to  see  the  advancement  of  the  young 
men  who  have  come  up  about  me." 

This  growing  sense  of  personal  responsi- 
bility, and  still  better,  of  personal  interest,  this 
giving  of  one's  abilities  and  one's  time,  in 
addition  to  one's  means,  is  the  beginning  of  the 
fulfilment  of  what  I  have  long  thought: 
namely,  the  great  gain  that  will  accrue  to 
numberless  communities  and  to  the  nation, 
when  men  of  great  means,  men  of  great  busi- 
ness and  executive  ability,  give  of  their  time 
and  their  abilities  for  the  accomplishment  of 
those  things  for  the  public  welfare  that  other- 
wise would  remain  undone,  or  that  would  re- 
main unduly  delayed.  What  a  gain  will  re- 
sult also  to  those  who  so  do  in  the  joy  and 
satisfaction  resulting  from  this  higher  type  of 
accomplishment  hallowed  by  the  undying  ele- 
ment of  human  service ! 

You  keep  silent  too  much.  "  Have  great 
leaders,  and  the  rest  will  follow,"  said  Whit- 
man. The  gift  of  your  abilities  while  you  live 
would  be  of  priceless  worth  for  the  establishing 
and  the  maintenance  of  a  fairer,  a  healthier, 
and  a  sweeter  life  in  your  community,  your 
city,  your  country.  It  were  better  to  do  this 
and  to  be  contented  with  a  smaller  accumula- 
tion than  to  have  it  so  large  or  even  so  exces- 
sive, and  when  the  summons  comes  to  leave 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    183 

it  to  two  or  three  or  to  half  a  dozen  who  can- 
not possibly  have  good  use  for  it  all,  and  some 
of  whom  perchance  would  be  far  better  off 
without  it,  or  without  so  much.  By  so  doing 
you  would  be  leaving  something  still  greater 
to  them  as  well  as  to  hundreds  or  thousands  of 
others. 

Significant  in  this  connection  are  these  words 
by  a  man  of  wealth  and  of  great  public  serv- 
ice: * 

"  On  the  whole,  the  individualistic  age  has 
not  been  a  success,  either  for  the  individual,  or 
the  community  in  which  he  has  lived,  or  the 
nation.  We  are,  beyond  question,  entering  on 
a  period  where  the  welfare  of  the  community 
takes  precedence  over  the  interests  of  the  in- 
dividual and  where  the  liberty  of  the  individ- 
ual will  be  more  and  more  circumscribed  for 
the  benefit  of  the  community  as  a  whole. 
Man's  activities  will  hereafter  be  required  to 
be  not  only  for  himself  but  for  his  fellow-men. 
To  my  mind  there  is  nothing  in  the  signs  of 
the  times  so  certain  as  this. 

"  The  man  of  exceptional  ability,  of  more 
than  ordinary  talent,  will  hereafter  look  for 
his  rewards,  for  his  honours,  not  in  one  direc- 

*  From  a  notable  article  in  the  New  York  "  Times 
Magazine,"  Sunday,  April  i,  1917,  by  George  W. 
Perkins,  chairman  Mayor's  Food  Supply  Commis- 
sion. 


i84    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

tion  but  in  two — first,  and  foremost,  in  some 
public  work  accomplished,  and,  secondarily,  in 
wealth  acquired.  In  place  of  having  it  said  of 
him  at  his  death  that  he  left  so  many  hundred 
thousand  dollars  it  will  be  said  that  he  ren- 
dered a  certain  amount  of  public  service,  and, 
incidentally,  left  a  certain  amount  of  money. 
Such  a  goal  will  prove  a  far  greater  satisfac- 
tion to  him,  he  will  live  a  more  rational,  worth- 
while life,  and  he  will  be  doing  his  share  to 
provide  a  better  country  in  which  to  live.  We 
face  new  conditions,  and  in  order  to  survive 
and  succeed  we  shall  require  a  different  spirit 
of  public  service." 

I  am  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  mere 
accumulation  of  wealth  is  not,  except  in  very 
rare  cases,  the  controlling  motive  in  the  lives 
of  our  wealthy  men  of  affairs.  It  is  rather 
the  joy  and  the  satisfaction  of  achievement. 
But  nevertheless  it  is  possible,  as  has  so  often 
proved,  to  get  so  much  into  a  habit  and 
thereby  into  a  rut,  that  one  becomes  a  victim 
of  habit ;  and  the  life  with  all  its  superb  possi- 
bilities of  human  service,  and  therefore  of  true 
greatness,  becomes  side-tracked  and  abortive. 

There  are  so  many  different  lines  of  activity 
for  human  betterment  for  children,  for  men 
and  women,  that  those  of  great  executive  and 
financial  ability  have  wonderful  opportunities. 
Greatness  conies  always  through  human  serv- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    185 

ice.  As  there  is  no  such  thing  as  finding 
happiness  by  searching  for  it  directly,  so  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  achieving  greatness  by 
seeking  it  directly.  It  comes  not  primarily 
through  brilliant  intellect,  great  talents,  but 
primarily  through  the  heart.  It  is  determined 
by  the  way  that  brilliant  intellect,  great  talents 
are  used.  It  is  accorded  not  to  those  who  seek 
it  directly.  By  an  indirect  law  it  is  accorded 
to  those  who,  forgetting  self,  give  and  thereby 
lose  their  lives  in  human  service. 

Both  poet  and  prophet  is  Edwin  Markham 
when  he  says: 

We  men  of  earth  have  here  the  stuff 
Of  Paradise — we  have  enough! 
We  need  no  other  stones  to  build 
The  stairs  into  the  Unfulfilled — 
No  other  ivory  for  the  doors — 
No  other  marble  for  the  floors — 
No  other  cedar  for  the  beam 
And  dome  of  man's  immortal  dream. 

Here  on  the  paths  of  every  day — 
Here  on  the  common  human  way, 
Is  all  the  stuff  the  gods  would  take 
To  build  a  Heaven ;  to  mould  and  make 
New  Edens.    Ours  the  stuff  sublime 
To  build  Eternity  in  timel 


i86    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

This  putting  of  divinity  into  life  and  raising 
thereby  an  otherwise  sordid  life  up  to  higher 
levels  and  thereby  to  greater  enjoyments,  is 
the  power  that  is  possessed  equally  by  those 
of  station  and  means,  and  by  those  in  the  more 
humble  or  even  more  lowly  walks  of  life. 

When  your  life  is  thus  touched  by  the  spirit 
of  God,  when  it  is  ruled  by  this  inner  King- 
dom, when  your  constant  prayer,  as  the  prayer 
of  every  truly  religious  man  or  woman  will  be 
— Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do?  My 
one  desire  is  that  Thy  will  be  my  will,  and 
therefore  that  Thy  will  be  done  in  me  and 
through  me — then  you  are  living  the  Divine 
life;  you  are  a  coworker  with  God.  And 
whether  your  life  according  to  accepted  stand- 
ards be  noted  or  humble  it  makes  no  difference 
— you  are  fulfilling  your  Divine  mission.  You 
should  be,  you  cannot  help  being  fearless  and 
happy.  You  are  a  part  of  the  great  creative 
force  in  the  world. 

You  are  doing  a  man's  or  a  woman's  work 
in  the  world,  and  in  so  doing  you  are  not  un- 
important; you  are  essential.  The  joy  of  true 
accomplishment  is  yours.  You  can  look  for- 
ward always  with  sublime  courage  and  ex- 
pectancy. The  life  of  the  most  humble  can 
thus  become  an  exalted  life.  Mother,  watching 
over,  cleaning,  feeding,  training,  and  educating 
your  brood ;  seamstress,  working,  with  a  touch 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    187 

of  the  Divine  in  all  you  do — it  must  be  done 
by  some  one — allow  it  to  be  done  by  none 
better  than  by  you.  Farmer,  tilling  your  soil, 
gathering  your  crops,  caring  for  your  herds; 
you  are  helping  feed  the  world.  There  is 
nothing  more  important. 

"  Who  digs  a  well,  or  plants  a  seed, 

A  sacred  pact  he  keeps  with  sun  and  sod; 
With  these  he  helps  refresh  and  feed 

The   world,   and   enters   partnership   with 
God." 

If  you  do  not  allow  yourself  to  become  a 
slave  to  your  work,  and  if  you  cooperate 
within  the  house  and  the  home  so  that  your 
wife  and  your  daughters  do  not  become  slaves 
or  near-slaves,  what  an  opportunity  is  yours 
of  high  thinking  and  noble  living!  The  more 
intelligent  you  become,  the  better  read,  the 
greater  the  interest  you  take  in  community  and 
public  affairs,  the  more  effectively  you  be- 
come what  in  reality  and  jointly  you  are — the 
backbone  of  this  and  of  every  nation.  Teacher, 
poet,  dramatist,  carpenter,  ironworker,  clerk, 
college  head*,  Mayor,  Governor,  President, 
Ruler — the  effectiveness  of  your  work  and  the 
satisfaction  in  your  work  will  be  determined 
by  the  way  in  which  you  relate  your  thought 
and  your  work  to  the  Divine  plan,  and  co- 


i88    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

ordinate  your  every  activity  in  reference  to  the 
highest  welfare  of  the  greater  whole. 

However  dimly  or  clearly  we  may  perceive 
it  great  changes  are  taking  place.  The  simple, 
direct  teachings  of  the  Christ  are  reaching 
more  and  more  the  mind,  are  stirring  the  heart 
and  through  these  are  dominating  the  actions 
of  increasing  numbers  of  men  and  women. 
The  realisation  of  the  mutual  interdependence 
of  the  human  family,  the  realisation  of  its  com- 
mon source,  and  that  when  one  part  of  it  goes 
wrong  all  suffer  thereby,  the  same  as  when 
any  portion  of  it  advances  all  are  lifted  and 
benefited  thereby,  makes  us  more  eager  for 
the  more  speedy  actualising  of  the  Kingdom 
that  the  Master  revealed  and  portrayed. 

It  was  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  who  in  this  con- 
nection recently  said :  "  Those  who  think  that 
the  day  of  the  Messiah  is  over  are  strangely 
mistaken;  it  has  hardly  begun.  In  individual 
souls  Christianity  has  flourished  and  borne 
fruit,  but  for  the  ills  of  the  world  itself  it  is 
an  almost  untried  panacea.  It  will  be  strange 
if  this  ghastly  war  fosters  and  simplifies  and 
improves  a  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  aids  a 
perception  of  the  ineffable  beauty  of  his  life 
and  teaching;  yet  stranger  things  have  hap- 
pened, and  whatever  the  churches  may  do,  I 
believe  that  the  call  of  Christ  himself  will  be 
heard  and  attended  to  by  a  larger  part  of  hu- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    189 

manity  in  the  near  future,  as  never  yet  it  has 
been  heard  or  attended  to  on  earth." 

The  simple  message  of  the  Christ,  with  its 
twofold  injunction  of  Love,  is,  when  suffi- 
ciently understood  and  sufficiently  heeded,  all 
that  we  men  of  earth  need  to  lift  up,  to  beau- 
tify, to  make  strong  and  Godlike  individual 
lives  and  thereby  and  of  necessity  the  life  of 
the  world.  Jesus  never  taught  that  God  in- 
carnated Himself  in  him  alone.  I  challenge 
any  man  living  to  find  any  such  teach- 
ing by  him.  He  did  proclaim  his  own  unique 
realisation  of  God.  Intuitively  and  vividly  he 
perceived  the  Divine  life,  the  eternal  Word,  the 
eternal  Christ,  manifesting  in  his  clean,  strong, 
upright  soul,  so  that  the  young  Jewish  rabbi 
and  prophet,  known  in  all  his  community  as 
Jesus,  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary  and  whose 
brothers  and  sisters  they  knew  so  well,*  be- 
came the  firstborn — fully  born— <>f  the  Father. 

He  then  pleaded  with  all  the  energy  and 
love  and  fervour  of  his  splendid  heart  and 
vigorous  manhood  that  all  men  should  follow 
the  Way  that  he  revealed  and  realise  their 
Divine  Sonship,  that  their  lives  might  be  re- 
deemed— redeemed  from  the  bondage  of^  the 

*  Is  not  this  the  carpenter,  the  son  of  Mary,  the 
brother  of  James,  and  Joses,  and  of  Juda,  and 
Simon?  And  are  his  sisters  not  here  with  us? — 
Mark  6:3. 


igo    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

bodily  senses  and  the  bondage  of  merely  the 
things  of  the  outer  world,  and  saved  as  fit  sub- 
jects of  and  workers  in  the  Father's  Kingdom. 
Otherwise  for  millions  of  splendid  earnest  men 
and  women  today  his  life-message  would  have 
no  meaning. 

To  make  men  awake  to  their  real  identity, 
and  therefore  to  their  possibilities  and  powers 
as  true  sons  of  God,  the  Father  of  all,  and 
therefore  that  all  men  are  brothers — for  other- 
wise God  is  not  Father  of  all — and  to  live  to- 
gether in  brotherly  love  and  mutual  coopera- 
tion whereby  the  Divine  will  becomes  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven — this  is  his  message  to 
we  men  of  earth.  If  we  believe  his  message 
and  accept  his  leadership,  then  he  becomes  in- 
deed our  elder  brother  who  leads  the  way,  the 
Word  in  us  becomes  flesh,  the  Christ  becomes 
enthroned  in  our  lives, — and  we  become  co- 
workers  with  him  in  the  Father's  vineyard. 


XII 


THE  WORLD  WAR— ITS  MEANING  AND  ITS 
LESSONS  FOR  US 

Whatever  differences  of  opinion — and  honest 
differences  of  opinion — may  have  existed  and 
may  still  exist  in  America  in  regard  to  the 
great  world  conflict,  there  is  a  wonderful 
unanimity  of  thought  that  has  crystallised 
itself  into  the  concrete  form — something  must 
be  done  in  order  that  it  can  never  occur  again. 
The  higher  intelligence  of  the  nation  must 
assert  itself.  It  must  feel  and  think  and  act 
in  terms  of  internationalism.  Not  that  the 
feeling  of  nationalism  in  any  country  shall,  or 
even  can  be  eradicated  or  even  abated.  It 
must  be  made,  however,  to  coordinate  itself 
with  the  now  rapidly  growing  sense  of  world- 
consciousness,  that  the  growing  intelligence 
of  mankind,  aided  by  some  tremendously  con- 
crete forms  of  recent  experience,  is  now  r>ecog- 
nising  as  a  great  reality. 

That  there  have  been  strong  sympathies  for 

both  the  Allied  Nations  and  for  the  Central 

Powers  in  their  titanic  conflict,  goes  without 

saying.    How  could  it  be  otherwise,  when  we 

191 


iQ2    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

realise  the  diverse  and  complex  types  of  our 
citizenship  ? 

One  of  the  most  distinctive,  and  in  some 
ways  one  of  the  most  significant,  features  of 
the  American  nation  is  that  it  is  today  com- 
posed of  representatives,  and  in  some  cases,  of 
enormous  bodies  of  representatives,  number- 
ing into  the  millions,  of  practically  every  na- 
tion in  the  world. 

There  are  single  cities  where,  in  one  case 
twenty-six,  in  another  case  twenty-nine,  and 
in  other  cases  a  still  larger  number  of  what 
are  today  designated  as  hyphenated  citizens 
are  represented.  The  orderly  removal  of  the 
hyphen,  and  the  amalgamation  of  these  splen- 
did representatives  of  practically  all  nations 
into  genuine  American  citizens,  infused  with 
American  ideals  and  pushed  on  by  true  Ameri- 
can ambitions,  is  one  of  the  great  problems 
that  the  war  has  brought  in  a  most  striking 
manner  to  our  attention. 

Not  that  these  representatives  of  many 
nations  shall  in  any  way  lose  their  sense  of 
sympathy  for  the  nations  of  their  birth,  in 
times  of  either  peace  or  of  distress,  although 
they  have  found  it  either  advisable  or  greatly 
to  their  own  personal  advantage  and  welfare 
to  leave  the  lands  of  their  birth  and  to  estab- 
lish their  homes  here. 

The  fact  that  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    193 

they  find  themselves  better  off  here,  and  choose 
to  remain  and  assume  the  responsibilities  of 
citizenship  in  the  Western  Republic,  involves 
a  responsibility  that  some,  if  not  indeed  many, 
heretofore  have  apparently  too  lightly  con- 
sidered. There  must  be  a  more  supreme  sense 
of  allegiance,  and  a  continually  growing  sense 
of  responsibility  to  the  nation,  that,  guided  by 
their  own  independent  judgment  and  animated 
by  their  own  free  wills,  they  have  chosen  as 
their  home. 

There  is  a  difference  between  sympathy  and 
allegiance ;  and  unless  a  man  has  found  con- 
ditions intolerable  in  the  land  of  his  birth, 
and  this  is  the  reason  for  his  seeking  a  home  in 
another  land  more  to  his  liking  and  to  his  ad- 
vantage, we  cannot  expect  him  to  be  devoid 
of  sympathy  for  the  land  of  his  birth,  especially 
in  times  of  stress  or  of  great  need.  We  can 
expect  him,  however,  and  we  have  a  right  to 
demand  his  absolute  allegiance  to  the  land  of 
his  adoption.  And  if  he  cannot  give  this,  then 
we  should  see  to  it  that  he  return  to  his  former 
home.  If  he  is  capable  of  clear  thinking  and 
right  feeling,  he  also  must  realise  the  funda- 
mental truth  of  this  fact. 

The  time  has  now  arrived  when  the  great 
mass  of  American  people,  including  vast  num- 
bers of  foreign  birth,  or  children  of  those  of 
foreign  birth,  realise  the  grave  dangers  to 


194    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

American  institutions,  and  to  the  very  nation 
itself,  in  any  hyphenated  citizenship.  There 
will,  moreover,  be  an  insistent  demand  that 
those  who  of  their  own  choice  choose  to  live 
here,  realise  the  duty  of  their  supreme  alle- 
giance to  one  nation — and  if  they  cannot  give 
this,  that  they  then  ~be  compelled  to  get  out. 

There  are  public  schools  in  America  where 
as  many  as  nineteen  languages  are  spoken  in 
a  single  room.  Our  public  schools,  so  eagerly 
sought  by  the  children  of  parents  of  foreign 
birth,  in  their  intense  eagerness  for  an  educa- 
tion that  is  offered  freely  and  without  cost  to 
all,  can  and  must  be  made  greater  instruments 
in  converting  what  must  in  time  become  a 
great  menace  to  our  institutions,  and  even  to 
the  very  life  of  the  nation  itself,  into  a  real  and 
genuine  American  citizenship.  Our  best  edu- 
cators, in  addition  to  our  clearest  thinking 
citizens,  are  realising  as  never  before,  that  our 
public-school  system  chiefly,  among  our  edu- 
cational institutions,  must  be  made  a  great 
melting-pot  through  which  this  process  of 
amalgamation  must  be  carried  on. 

We  are  also  realising  clearly  now  that,  as  a 
nation,  we  have  been  entirely  too  lax  in  con- 
nection with  our  immigration  privileges,  regu- 
lations, and  restrictions.  We  have  been  ad- 
mitting foreigners  to  our  shores  in  such  enor- 
mous quantities  each  year  that  we  have  not 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    195 

been  able  at  all  adequately  to  assimilate  them, 
nor  have  we  used  at  all  a  sufficiently  wise  dis- 
crimination in  the  admission  of  desirables  or 
undesirables. 

We  have  received,  or  we  have  allowed  to  be 
dumped  upon  our  shores,  great  numbers  of  the 
latter  whom  we  should  know  would  inevitably 
become  dependents,  as  well  as  great  numbers 
of  criminals.  The  result  has  been  that  they  have 
been  costing  certain  localities  millions  of  dol- 
lars every  year.  But  entirely  aside  from  the 
latter,  the  last  two  or  three  years  have  brought 
home  to  us  as  never  before  the  fact  that  those 
who  come  to  our  shores  must  come  with  the 
avowed  and  the  settled  purpose  of  becoming 
real  American  citizens,  giving  full  and  abso- 
lute allegiance  to  the  institutions,  the  laws, 
the  government  of  the  land  of  their  adop- 
tion. 

If  any  other  government  is  not  able  so  to 
manage  as  to  make  it  more  desirable  for  its 
subjects  to  remain  in  the  land  of  their  birth, 
rather  than  to  seek  homes  in  the  land  with  in- 
stitutions more  to  their  liking,  or  with  ad- 
vantages more  conducive  to  their  welfare,  that 
government  then  should  not  expect  to  retain, 
even  in  the  slightest  degree,  the  allegiance  of 
such  former  subjects.  A  hyphenated  citizen- 
ship may  become  as  dangerous  to  a  republic 
as  a  cancer  is  in  the  human  body.  A  country 


ig6    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

with  over  a  hundred  hyphens  cannot  fulfil  its 
highest  destiny. 

The  war  has  brought  home  to  us  as  never 
before  also  this  tremendous  fact.  While  of 
late  years  there  has  been  in  America  a  tre- 
mendous growth  and  quickening  of  thought 
along  the  lines  of  internationalism,  now  rapidly 
crystallising  itself  into  the  form  of  a  World 
Federation  for  the  enforcement  of  peace  and 
a  World  Court  for  the  arbitrament  of  all  na- 
tional differences  that  cannot  be  readily  settled 
by  the  nations  involved,  the  war  has  brought 
us  as  a  people  face  to  face  with  another  great 
fact.  It  is  this:  During  the  last  several  years 
things  have  occurred,  great  forces  have  broken 
forth  that  we  and  all  peace-loving  people 
throughout  the  world  thought  well-nigh  im- 
possible. Treaties  have  been  broken,  inter- 
national law  has  been  strained,  snapped,  and 
scrapped.  The  sovereign  rights  of  neutral 
nations  have  been  violated. 

Grim  war  has  been  thrust  across  their  very 
borders.  One  after  another,  neutral  nations 
have  had  their  trade,  their  industries,  their 
commerce,  interfered  with,  and  in  many  cases 
even  utterly  demoralised.  Great  amounts  of 
property  have  been  destroyed,  and  numbers 
of  lives  have  been  lost  to  them  through  the 
grim,  relentless  tragedy  of  war  which  they 
have  had  no  hand  in  the  making. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    197 

We,  as  a  nation,  have  been  rudely  shaken 
from  our  long  dream  of  almost  inevitable 
national  security.  We  have  been  brought 
finally,  and  although  as  a  nation  we  have  no 
desire  for  conquest  or  empire,  and  no  desire 
for  military  glory,  and  therefore  no  need  of 
any  great  army  or  navy  for  offensive  purposes, 
we  have  been  brought  finally  to  realise  that  we 
do,  nevertheless,  stand  in  need  of  a  national 
strengthening  of  our  arm  of  defence.  A  land 
of  a  hundred  million  people,  where  one  could 
travel  many  times  for  a  sixmonth  and  never 
see  the  sign  of  a  soldier,  is  brought,  though 
reluctantly,  to  face  a  new  state  of  affairs ;  but 
one,  nevertheless,  that  must  be  faced — calmly 
faced  and  wisely  acted  upon.  And  while  it  is 
true  that  as  a  nation  we  have  always  had  the 
tradition  of  non-militarism,  it  is  not  true  that 
we  have  had  the  tradition  of  military  or  of 
naval  impotence  or  weakness. 

Preparedness,  therefore,  has  assumed  a  posi- 
tion of  tremendous  importance,  in  individual 
thought,  in  public  discussion,  and  almost  uni- 
versally in  the  columns  of  the  public  press. 
One  of  the  most  vital  questions  among  us 
today  is,  not  so  much  as  to  how  we  shall  pre- 
pare, but  how  shall  we  prepare  adequately  for 
defensive  purposes,  in  case  of  any  emergency 
arising,  without  being  thrown  too  far  along 
the  road  of  militarism,  and  without  an  in- 


ig8    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

ordinate  preparation  that  has  been  the  scourge 
and  the  bane  of  many  old-world  countries  for 
so  many  years,  and  that  quite  as  much  as  any- 
thing has  been  provocative  of  that  horrible 
conflict  that  has  literally  been  devastating  so 
many  European  countries. 

It  is  clearly  apparent  that  the  best  thought 
in  America  today  calls  for  an  adequate  prepa- 
ration for  purposes  of  defence,  and  calls  for  a 
recognition  of  facts  as  they  are.  It  also  clearly 
sees  the  danger  of  certain  types  of  mind  and 
certain  interests  combining  to  carry  the  matter 
much  farther  than  is  at  all  called  for.  The 
question  is — How  shall  we  then  strike  that 
happy  balance  that  is  the  secret  of  all  suc- 
cessful living  in  the  lives  of  either  individ- 
uals or  in  the  lives  of  nations? 

All  clear-seeing  people  realise  that,  as  things 
are  in  the  world  today,  there  is  a  certain 
amount  of  preparedness  that  is  necessary  for 
influence  and  for  insurance.  As  within  the 
nation  a  police  force  is  necessary  for  the  en- 
forcement of  law,  for  the  preservation  of  law 
and  order,  although  it  is  not  at  all  necessary 
that  every  second  or  third  man  be  a  policeman, 
so  in  the  council  of  nations  the  individual 
nation  must  have  a  certain  element  of  force 
that  it  can  fall  back  upon  if  all  other  available 
agencies  fail.  In  diplomacy  the  strong  nations 
win  out,  the  weaker  lose  out.  Military  and 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    199 

naval  power,  unless  carried  to  a  ridiculous 
excess  does  not,  therefore,  lie  idle,  even  when 
not  in  actual  use. 

Our  power  and  influence  as  a  nation  will 
certainly  not  be  in  proportion  to  our  weak- 
ness. Although  righteousness  exalteth  a 
nation,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  righteous- 
ness alone  will  not  protect  a  nation — while 
other  nations  are  fully  armed.  National  weak- 
ness does  not  make  for  peace. 

Righteousness,  combined  with  a  spirit  of 
forbearance,  combined  with  a  keen  desire  to 
give  justice  as  well  as  to  demand  justice,  if 
combined  with  the  power  to  strike  powerfully 
and  sustainedly  in  defence  of  justice,  and  in 
defence  of  national  integrity,  is  what  protects 
a  nation,  and  this  it  is  that  in  the  long  run 
exalteth  a  nation — while  things  are  as  they  are. 

While  conditions  have  therefore  brought 
prominently  to  the  forefront  in  America  the 
matter  of  military  training  and  military  serv- 
ice— an  adequate  military  preparation  for  pur- 
poses of  defence,  for  full  and  adequate  defence, 
the  best  thought  of  the  nation  is  almost  a  unit 
in  the  belief  that,  for  us  as  a  nation,  an  im- 
mense standing  army  is  unnecessary  as  well 
as  inadvisable. 

It  is  a  grave  question  in  the  minds  of  most 
people,  however,  as  to  whether  it  should  be 
introduced  into  our  public  schools.  To  do  so 


200    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

is  to  change  almost  overnight,  so  to  speak, 
one  of  our  most  cherished  American  ideals.  It 
is  the  fundamental  ideal  of  living  on  terms  of 
peace  and  good  will  with  all  nations — and  re- 
placing it  with  the  ideal,  military  training. 
Were  the  same  time  given  to  a  more  thorough 
teaching  of  civics,  thereby  inculcating  a  far 
greater  acquaintanceship  with,  and  working 
knowledge  of  American  institutions,  political 
methods,  and  political  ideals,  we  would  in  the 
long  run  be  stronger  as  a  nation,  even  in  times 
of  any  great  crisis.  Especially  is  this  true  of 
the  tremendous  foreign  element,  continually 
increasing,  that  we  have  in  our  public  schools 
throughout  almost  the  entire  country. 

Let  the  military  training  come  later,  at  a 
more  responsible  age,  and  in  a  more  systematic 
manner.  Let  it  be  given  by  those  fully  com- 
petent to  give  it.  Let  it  be  wholly  under  Fed- 
eral control  and  let  it  be  universal,  beginning 
at  the  age  of  eighteen  and  continuing  to  the 
age  of  twenty-one.  Let  every  youth  in  the 
land  then  be  required  to  be  in  attendance  in 
the  training  camp  three  months  in  the  summer, 
each  summer,  during  these  three  years. 

Let  them  there  be  given  systematic  military 
training,  combined  with  physical  training, 
hikes  for  endurance,  training  in  hygiene,  and 
additional  instruction  in  civics,  inculcating 
thereby  not  only  a  fuller  sense  of  responsi- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    201 

bility  for  the  welfare  and  the  safety  of  their 
country  in  times  of  danger,  but  the  still  greater 
and  more  needed  responsibility  of  a  citizen  in 
taking  an  intelligent  and  an  efficient  interest 
in  matters  of  government  in  times  of  peace, 
and  then  the  readiness  to  spring  forth  instantly 
for  service  in  case  of  any  call  for  her  defence. 
Let  the  right  of  franchise— or  the  beginning 
of  voting,  the  assumption  of  full  citizenship — 
be  dependent  upon  the  ability  to  pass  satis- 
factory tests  along  all  these  lines,  which  in 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  cases  will  make 
citizenship  and  suffrage  mean  something, 
where  in  the  commonplace  manner  in  which  it 
is  assumed  today  it  means  but  little  in  all  too 
many  cases. 

In  this  way  also  can  real  American  citizens 
be  made  out  of  the  children  of  the  vast  num- 
bers of  foreigners  that  come  annually  to  our 
shores.  In  this  way,  also,  under  the  guidance 
of  trained  and  well-equipped  instructors  and 
leaders,  can  we  amalgamate  and  build  up  a 
true,  a  safe,  and  a  sane  American  spirit.  To 
put  military  training  in  our  schools,  to  put 
wooden  guns  into  the  hands  of  school  children, 
is  as  consummately  silly  as  it  is  foolhardy  and 
unnecessary.  Let  a  wisely  wrought  out  and  a 
standardised  system  of  physical  training  be 
introduced  and  systematically  followed,  be- 
ginning at  the  age  of  eight  and  continuing 


202    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

right  through  public,  and  high,  and  private 
school. 

Then  when  the  age  of  eighteen  years  is 
reached  our  young  men  would  be  prepared  to 
go  into  our  national  training  camps  and  ac- 
complish as  much  during  the  three  months 
through  each  of  the  three  years  that  he  is  re- 
quired to  serve  there,  as  could  possibly  be  ac- 
complished by  attempting  to  string  a  military 
training  through  the  entire  school  course.  In 
this  way  we  would  get  efficiently  the  required 
result,  without  entirely  perverting  our  Ameri- 
can ideals  and  our  American  traditions,  as  well 
as  perverting  if  not  poisoning  our  higher  ideals 
of  education. 

The  bill  that  has  recently  been  passed  here 
in  our  own  state,  the  state  of  New  York,  re- 
quiring military  training  to  be  introduced  into 
our  schools  and  at  an  earlier  age,  will,  I  pre- 
dict, be  found  so  consummately  silly  that  it 
will  in  due  course  of  time  be  abrogated.  We 
do  not  always  act  wisely  when  any  particular 
hysteria  is  on.  Out  of  such  action,  however, 
a  saner  type  of  action  is  eventually  evolved. 

This  method  of  military  training  could  be 
made  one  of  the  greatest  agencies  imaginable 
in  the  actualising  of  an  ideal  Democracy. 
There  all  classes,  rich  and  poor,  natives  and 
foreigners,  workers,  artisans  and  college  men, 
those  from  both  public  and  private  schools, 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    203 

will  all  meet  on  a  common  footing.  The  an- 
nual conferring  of  citizenship  upon  those  of 
the  third  class,  those  who  become  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  could  be  made  one  of  our 
most  interesting  and  stimulating  national  pub- 
lic days.  The  swearing  of  allegiance  to  the 
nation,  the  taking  on  of  full  citizenship,  could 
be  made  a  ceremony  on  the  various  great 
plains  where  the  national  training  camps  are 
located — equipped  and  beautified  as  such — 
quite  as  significant  as  were  those  occasions 
when  the  Greek  youths  assumed  the  sense  of 
allegiance  to  their  nation  so  many  centuries 
ago. 

If  the  nation  should  bear  the  expenses  of 
each  during  the  three  annual  periods  of  train- 
ing, which  I  believe  it  should,  thereby  work- 
ing no  hardships  on  any,  the  cost  would  be 
but  an  insignificant  amount  compared  to  the 
tremendous  cost  of  a  large  standing  army. 

No  amount  of  military  preparation  that  is 
not  combined  definitely  and  completely  with 
an  enhanced  citizenship,  and  therefore  with 
an  advance  in  real  democracy,  is  at  all  worthy 
of  consideration  on  the  part  of  the  American 
people,  or  indeed  on  the  part  of  the  people  of 
any  nation.  Pre-eminently  is  this  true  in  this 
day  and  age. 

Observing  this  principle  we  could  then, 
while  these  vast  numbers  of  young  men  are 


204    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

being  made  ready,  and  to  serve  our  immediate 
needs,  have  an  army  of  half  a  million  men 
without  danger  of  militarism  and  without 
heavy  financial  burdens,  and  without  subvert- 
ing our  American  ideas — providing  it  is  an 
industrial  arm.  There  are  great  engineering 
projects  that  could  be  carried  on,  thereby  de- 
veloping many  of  our  now  latent  resources; 
there  is  an  immense  amount  of  road-building 
that  could  be  projected  in  many  parts  of,  if 
not  throughout  the  entire  country;  there  are 
great  irrigation  projects  that  could  be  carried 
on  in  the  far  West  and  Southwest,  reclaiming 
millions  upon  millions  of  acres  of  what  are 
now  unproductive  desert  lands ;  all  these  could 
be  carried  on  and  made  even  to  pay,  keeping 
busy  a  half-million  men  for  half  a  dozen  years 
to  come. 

This  army  of  half  a  million  men  could  be 
recruited,  trained  to  an  adequate  degree  of 
military  service,  and  at  the  same  time  could 
be  engaged  in  profitable  employment  on  these 
much-needed  works.  They  could  then  be  paid 
an  adequate  wage,  ample  to  support  a  family, 
or  ample  to  lay  up  savings  if  without  family. 
Such  men  leaving  the  army  service,  would 
then  have  a  degree  of  training  and  skill 
whereby  they  would  be  able  to  get  positions 
or  employment,  all  more  remunerative  than 
the  bulk  of  them,  perhaps,  would  ever  be 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    205 

able  to  get  without  such  training  and  ex- 
perience. 

An  army  of  half  a  million  trained  men, 
somewhat  equally  divided  between  the  At- 
lantic and  the  Pacific  seaboards,  the  bulk  of 
them  engaged  in  regular  constructive  work, 
work  that  needs  to  be  done  and  that,  therefore, 
could  be  profitably  done,  and  ready  to  be  called 
into  service  at  a  moment's  notice,  would  con- 
stitute a  tremendous  insurance  against  any 
aggression  from  without,  and  would  also  give 
a  tremendous  sense  of  security  for  half  a  dozen 
years  at  least.  This  number  could  then  be 
reduced,  for  by  that  time  several  million  young 
men  from  eighteen  years  up  would  be  partially 
trained  and  in  first-class  physical  shape  to  be 
summoned  to  service  should  the  emergency 
arise. 

In  addition  to  the  vast  amount  of  good  roads 
building,  whose  cost  could  be  borne  in  equal 
proportions  by  nation,  state,  and  county — a 
most  important  factor  in  connection  with  mili- 
tary necessity  as  well  as  a  great  economic 
factor  in  the  successful  development  and  ad- 
vancement of  any  community — the  millions  of 
acres  of  now  arid  lands  in  the  West,  awaiting 
only  water  to  make  them  among  the  most  val- 
uable and  productive  in  all  the  world,  could  be 
used  as  a  great  solution  of  our  immigration 
problem. 


206    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

Up  to  the  year  when  the  war  began,  there 
came  to  our  shores  upwards  of  one  million 
immigrants  every  twelve  months,  seeking 
work,  and  most  of  them  homes  in  this  country. 
The  great  bulk  of  them  got  no  farther  than 
our  cities,  increasing  congestion,  already  in 
many  cases  acute,  and  many  of  them  becoming 
in  time,  from  one  cause  or  another,  depend- 
ents, the  annual  cost  of  their  maintenance 
aggregating  many  millions  every  year. 

With  these  vast  acres  ready  for  them  large 
numbers  could,  under  a  wise  system  of  dis- 
tribution, be  sent  on  to  the  great  West  and 
Southwest,  and  more  easily  and  directly  now 
since  the  Panama  Canal  is  open  for  navigation. 
Allotments  of  these  lands  could  be  assigned 
them  that  they  could  in  time  become  owners 
of,  through  a  wisely  established  system  of  pay- 
ments. Many  of  them  would  thereby  be  living 
lives  similar  to  those  they  lived  in  their  own 
countries,  and  for  which  their  training  and 
experience  there  have  abundantly  fitted  them. 
They  would  thus  become  a  far  more  valuable 
type  of  citizens — landowners — than  they  could 
ever  possibly  become  otherwise,  and  especially 
through  our  present  unorganised  hit-or-miss 
system.  They  would  in  time  also  add  annually 
hundreds  of  millions  of  productive  work  to  the 
wealth  of  the  country. 

The  very  wise  system  that  was  inaugurated 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    207 

some  time  ago  in  connection  with  the  Coast 
Defence  arm  of  our  army  is,  under  the  wise 
direction  of  our  present  Secretary  of  War,  to 
be  extended  to  all  branches  of  the  service. 
For  some  time  in  the  Coast  Artillery  Service 
the  enlisted  man  under  competent  instruction 
has  had  the  privilege  of  becoming  a  skilled 
machinist  or  a  skilled  electrician.  Now  the 
system  is  to  be  extended  through  all  branches 
of  the  military  service,  and  many  additional 
trades  are  to  be  added  to  the  curricula  of  the 
trade  schools  of  the  army.  The  young  man 
can,  therefore,  make  his  own  selection  and  be- 
come a  trained  artisan  at  the  same  time  that 
he  serves  his  time  in  the  army,  with  all  ex- 
penses for  such  training,  as  well  as  mainte- 
nance, borne  by  the  Government.  He  can 
thereby  leave  the  service  fully  equipped  for 
profitable  employment. 

This  will  have  the  tendency  of  calling  a 
better  class  of  young  men  into  the  service; 
it  will  also  do  away  with  the  well-founded 
criticism  that  army  life  and  its  idleness,  or 
partly-enforced  idleness,  unfits  a  man  for  use- 
ful industrial  service  after  he  quits  the  army. 
If  this  same  system  is  extended  through  the 
navy,  as  it  can  be,  both  army  and  navy  serv- 
ice will  meet  the  American  requirement — that 
neither  military  nor  naval  service  take  great 
numbers  of  men  from  productive  employment, 


208    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

to  be  in  turn  supported  by  other  workers.  In- 
stead of  so  much  dead  timber,  they  are  all  the 
time  producing  while  in  active  service,  and  are 
being  trained  to  be  highly  efficient  as  pro- 
ducers, when  they  leave  the  service. 

Under  this  system  the  Federal  Government 
can  build  its  own  ordnance  works  and  its  own 
munition  factories  and  become  its  own  maker 
of  whatever  may  be  required  in  all  lines  of 
output.  We  will  then  be  able  to  escape  the 
perverse  influence  of  gain  on  the  part  of  large 
munition  industries,  and  the  danger  that 
comes  from  that  portion  of  a  military  party 
whose  motives  are  actuated  by  personal  gain. 

If  the  occasion  arises,  or  if  we  permit  the 
occasion  to  arise,  Kruppism  in  America  will 
become  as  dangerous  and  as  sinister  in  its  in- 
fluences and  its  proportions,  as  it  became  in 
Germany. 

The  war  has  also  taught  us  that  we  must 
be  awake  to  the  folly  of  having  the  bulk  of  our 
munition  factories  and  our  munition  maga- 
zines gathered  within  the  radius  of  a  few  miles 
along  our  Atlantic  seaboard.  They  must  be 
wisely  distributed  over  the  entire  country. 

Another  great  service  that  the  war  has  done 
us,  is  by  way  of  bringing  home  to  us  the  les- 
son that  has  been  so  prominently  brought  to 
the  front  in  connection  with  the  other 
nations  at  war,  namely,  the  necessity  of  the 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    aog 

speedy  and  thorough  mobilisation  of  all  lines 
of  industries  and  business ;  for  the  thorough- 
ness and  the  efficiency  with  which  this  can  be 
done  may  mean  success  that  otherwise  would 
result  in  failure  and  disaster.  We  are  now 
awake  to  the  tremendous  importance  of  this. 

The  Committee  on  Industrial  Preparedness 
of  the  Naval  Consulting  Board  is  under  the 
chairmanship  of  one  of  our  ablest  engineers, 
who  is  thoroughly  organising  the  industries 
of  the  country  for  readiness  and  action. 
The  responses  of  practically  all  our  various 
industries  to  the  call  that  has  been  sent  out  as 
to  what  they  are  best  fitted  for,  and  the  ca- 
pacity of  their  output  have  been  very  quick 
and  most  satisfactory. 

It  is  at  last  becoming  clearly  understood 
among  the  peoples  and  the  nations  of  the 
world  that,  as  a  nation,  we  have  no  desire  for 
conquest,  for  territory,  for  empire — we  have 
no  purposes  of  aggression;  we  have  quite 
enough  to  do  to  develop  our  resources  and 
our  as  yet  great  undeveloped  areas. 

A  few  months  before  the  war  broke,  I  had 
conversations  with  the  heads  or  with  the  rep- 
resentatives of  leading  publishing  houses  in 
several  European  countries.  It  was  at  a  time 
when  our  Mexican  situation  was  beginning  to 
be  very  acute.  I  remember  at  that  time  espe- 
cially, the  conversation  with  the  head  of  one  of 


2io    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

the  largest  publishing  houses  in  Italy,  in  Milan. 
I  could  see  plainly  his  scepticism  when,  in 
reply  to  his  questions,  I  endeavoured  to  per- 
suade him  that  as  a  nation  we  had  no  motives 
of  conquest  or  of  aggression  in  Mexico,  that 
we  were  interested  solely  in  the  restoration  of 
a  representative  and  stable  government  there. 
And  since  that  time,  I  am  glad  to  say  that  our 
acts  as  a  nation  have  all  been  along  the  line 
of  persuading  him,  and  also  many  other  like- 
minded  ones  in  many  countries  abroad,  of  the 
truth  of  this  assertion.  By  this  general  course 
we  have  been  gaining  the  confidence  and  have 
been  cementing  the  friendship  of  practically 
every  South  American  republic,  our  imme- 
diate neighbours  on  the  southern  continent. 
This  has  been  a  source  of  increasing  economic 
power  with  us,  and  an  element  of  greatly  added 
strength,  and  "also  a  tremendous  energy  work- 
ing all  the  time  for  the  preservation  of  peace. 

One  can  say  most  confidently,  even  though 
recognising  our  many  grave  faults  as  a  nation, 
that  our  course  along  this  line  has  been  such, 
especially  of  late  years,  as  to  inspire  confidence 
on  the  part  of  all  the  fair-minded  nations  of 
the  world. 

Without  therefore  any  designs  of  aggres- 
sion, any  dreams  of  world  empire,  knowing 
that  we  have  quite  enough  to  do  to  attend  to 
our  own  affairs  as  they  are,  the  immediate 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    211 

question  is:  how  shall  we  be  prepared,  ade- 
quately prepared  for  defence,  without  the  enor- 
mous burden,  the  nuisance,  the  dangers,  and 
the  enormous  cost  of  a  large  standing  army? 

Our  theory  of  the  state,  the  theory  of  de- 
mocracy, is  not  that  the  state  is  above  all, 
and  that  the  individual  and  his  welfare  are  as 
nothing  when  compared  to  it,  but  rather  that 
the  state  is  the  agency  through  which  the 
highest  welfare  of  all  its  subjects  is  to  be 
evolved,  expressed,  maintained.  No  other 
theory,  to  my  mind,  is  at  all  compatible  with 
the  intelligence  of  any  free-thinking  people. 

Otherwise,  there  is  always  the  danger  and 
also  the  likelihood,  while  human  nature  is  as 
it  is,  for  some  ruler,  some  clique,  or  factions  so 
to  concentrate  power  into  their  own  hands, 
that  for  their  own  ambitions,  for  aggrandise- 
ment, or  for  false  or  short-sighted  and  half- 
baked  ideas  of  additions  to  their  country,  it  is 
dragged  into  periodic  wars  with  other  nations. 

Nor  do  we  share  in  the  belief  that  the  state 
is  above  morality,  but  rather  that  identically 
the  same  moral  ideals,  precepts  and  obliga- 
tions that  bind  individuals  must  be  held  sacred 
by  the  state,  otherwise  it  becomes  a  pirate 
among  nations,  and  it  will  inevitably  in  time  be 
hunted  down  and  destroyed  as  such,  however 
great  its  apparent  power.  Nor  do  we  as  a 
nation  share  in  the  belief  that  war  is  necessary 


212    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

and  indeed  good  for  a  nation,  to  inspire  and 
to  preserve  its  manly  qualities,  its  virility,  and 
therefore  its  power.  Were  this  the  only  way 
that  this  could  be  brought  about,  it  might  be 
well  and  good;  but  the  price  to  be  paid  is  a 
price  that  is  too  enormous  and  too  frightful, 
and  the  results  are  too  uncertain.  We  believe 
that  these  same  ideals  can  be  inculcated,  that 
these  same  energies  can  be  used  along  useful, 
conserving,  constructive  lines,  rather  than 
along  lines  of  destruction. 

A  nation  may  have  the  most  colossal  and 
perfect  military  system  in  the  world,  and  still 
may  suffer  defeat  in  any  given  while,  because 
of  those  unseen  things  that  pertain  to  the  soul 
of  another  people,  whereby  powers  and  forces 
are  engendered  and  materialised  that  make 
defeat  for  them  impossible;  and  in  the  matter 
of  big  guns,  it  is  well  always  to  remember  that 
no  nation  can  build  them  so  great  that  another 
nation  may  not  build  them  still  greater. 
National  safety  does  not  necessarily  lie  in  that 
direction.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  along  the 
lines  of  extreme  pacificism — surely  not  as  long 
as  things  are  as  they  are.  The  argument  of 
the  lamb  has  small  deterrent  effect  upon  the 
wolf — as  long  as  the  wolf  is  a  wolf.  And 
sometimes  wolves  hunt  in  packs.  The  most 
preeminent  lesson  of  the  great  war  for  us  as 
a  nation  should  be  this — there  should  be  con- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    213 

stantly  a  degree  of  preparedness  sufficient  to 
hold  until  all  the  others,  the  various  portions 
of  the  nation,  thoroughly  coordinated  and 
ready,  can  be  summoned  into  action.  Thus 
are  we  prepared,  thus  are  we  safe,  and  there 
is  no  danger  or  fear  of  militarism. 

In  a  democracy  it  should,  it  seems  to  me, 
be  a  fundamental  fact  that  hand  in  hand  with 
equal  rights  there  should  go  a  sense  of  equal 
duty.  A  call  for  defence  should  have  a  uni- 
versal response.  So  it  is  merely  good  common- 
sense,  good  judgment,  if  you  please,  for  all 
the  young  men  of  the  nation  to  have  a  train- 
ing sufficient  to  enable  them  to  respond  ef- 
fectively if  the  nation's  safety  calls  them  to 
its  defence.  It  is  no  crime,  however  we  may 
deprecate  war,  to  be  thus  prepared. 

For  young  men — and  we  must  always  re- 
member that  it  is  the  young  men  who  are 
called  for  this  purpose — for  young  men  to  be 
called  to  the  colours  by  the  tens  or  the  hun- 
dreds of  thousands,  unskilled  and  untrained, 
to  be  shot  down,  decimated  by  the  thoroughly 
trained  and  skilled  troops  of  another  nation, 
or  a  combination  of  other  nations,  is  indeed  the 
crime.  Never,  moreover,  was  folly  so  great  as 
that  shown  by  him  or  by  her  who  will  not  see. 
And  to  look  at  the  matter  without  prejudice, 
we  will  realise  that  this  is  merely  policing 
what  we  have.  It  is  meeting  force  wjjh 


214    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

adequate  force,  if  it  becomes  necessary,  so  to 
meet  it. 

This  is  necessary  until  such  time  as  we  have 
in  operation  among  nations  a  machinery 
whereby  force  will  give  place  to  reason, 
whereby  common  sense  will  be  used  in  ad- 
justing all  differences  between  nations,  as  it 
is  now  used  in  adjusting  differences  between 
individuals. 

This  is  indeed  our  duty  to  ourselves  and  to 
the  nation;  but  it  should  not  blind  us  to  the 
fact  that  there  is  immediately  before  us  an- 
other duty  to  the  nation,  conjointly  with  a 
duty  to  all  nations. 


XIII 


OUR  SOLE  AGENCY  OF  INTERNATIONAL 

PEACE,  AND  INTERNATIONAL 

CONCORD 

The  consensus  of  intelligent  thought 
throughout  the  world  is  to  the  effect  that  just 
as  we  have  established  an  orderly  method  for 
the  settlement  of  disputes  between  individuals 
or  groups  of  individuals  in  any  particular 
nation,  we  must  now  move  forward  and 
establish  such  methods  for  the  settlement  of 
disputes  among  nations.  There  is  no  civilised 
country  in  the  world  that  any  longer  permits 
the  individual  to  take  the  law  into  his  own 
hands. 

The  intelligent  thought  of  the  world  now 
demands  the  definite  establishment  of  a  World 
Federation  for  the  enforcement  of  peace 
among  nations.  It  demands  likewise  the  defi- 
nite establishment  of  a  permanent  World 
Court  backed  by  adequate  force  for  the  arbitra- 
ment of  all  disputes  among  nations — unable 
to  be  adjusted  by  the  nations  themselves  in 
friendly  conference.  We  have  now  reached 
the  stage  in  world  development  and  in  world 
intercourse  where  peace  must  be  internation- 
215 


216    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

alised.  Our  present  chaotic  condition,  which 
exists  simply  because  we  haven't  taken  time 
as  yet  to  establish  a  method,  must  be  made  to 
give  place  to  an  intelligently  devised  system 
of  law  and  order.  Anything  short  of  this 
means  a  periodic  destruction  of  the  finest 
fruits  of  civilisation.  It  means  also  the 
periodic  destruction  of  the  finest  young  man- 
hood of  the  world.  This  means,  in  turn,  the 
speedy  degeneration  of  the  human  race.  The 
deification  of  force,  augmented  by  all  the  prod- 
ucts and  engines  of  modern  science,  is  simply 
the  way  of  sublimated  savagery. 

The  world  is  in  need  of  a  new  dispensation. 
Recent  events  show  indisputably  that  we  have 
reached  the  parting  of  the  ways,  the  family  of 
nations  must  now  push  on  into  the  new  day  or 
the  world  will  plunge  on  into  a  darker  night. 
There  is  no  other  course  in  sight.  I  know  of 
no  finer  words  penned  in  any  language — this 
time  it  was  in  the  French — to  express  an  un- 
varying truth  than  these  words  by  Victor 
Hugo :  "  There  is  one  thing  that  is  stronger 
than  armies,  and  that  is  an  idea  whose  time 
has  come." 

Never  before,  after  viewing  the  great  havoc 
wrought,  the  enormous  debts  that  will  have 
to  be  paid  for  between  two  and  three  hundred 
years  to  come,  the  tremendous  disruptions  and 
losses  in  trade,  the  misery  and  degradation 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    217 

that  stalks  broadcast  over  every  land  engaged 
in  the  war — scarcely  a  family  untouched — 
never  before  have  nations  been  in  the  state  of 
mind  to  consider  and  to  long  to  act  upon  some 
sensible  and  comprehensive  method  of  inter- 
national concord  and  adjustments.  If  this 
succeeds,  the  world,  including  ourselves,  is  the 
gainer.  If  this  does  not  succeed,  though  the 
chances  are  overwhelmingly  in  its  favour, 
then  we  can  proclaim  to  the  assembled  nations 
that  as  long  as  a  state  of  outlawry  exists  among 
nations,  that  then  no  longer  by  chance,  but  by 
design,  we  as  a  nation  will  be  in  a  state  of 
preparedness  broad  and  comprehensive  enough 
to  defend  ourselves  against  the  violation  of 
any  of  the  rights  of  a  sovereign  nation.  It  is 
only  in  this  way  that  we  can  show  a  due  ap- 
preciation of  the  struggles  and  the  sacrifices 
of  those  who  gave  us  our  national  existence, 
it  is  only  in  this  way  that  we  can  retain  our 
self-respect,  that  we  can  command  the  respect 
of  other  nations  ivhile  things  are  as  they  are; 
that  we  can  hope  to  retain  any  degree  of  in- 
fluence and  authority  for  the  diplomatic  arm 
of  our  Government  in  the  Council  of  Nations. 

Every  neutral  nation  has  suffered  tremen- 
dously by  the  war.  Every  neutral  nation  will 
suffer  until  a  new  world-order  among  nations 
is  projected  and  perfected. 

We  owe  a  tremendous  duty  to  the  world  in 


2i8    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

connection  with  this  great  world  crisis  and  up- 
heaval. Diligently  should  our  best  men  and 
women,  those  of  insight  and  greatest  influence, 
and  with  the  expenditure  of  both  time  and 
means,  seek  to  further  the  practical  working 
out  of  a  World  Federation  and  a  permanent 
World  Court.  Public  opinion  should  be  thus 
aroused  and  solidified  so  that  the  world  knows 
that  we  stand  as  a  united  nation  back  of  the 
idea  and  the  plan  when  the  time  comes  for 
those  in  authority  formally  to  present  or  help 
in  presenting  such  plan  before  the  assembled 
representatives  of  the  nations.  Within  the 
past  twelve  months  we  have  heard  many  clear- 
cut  endorsements  of  such  an  ideal  and  such  a 
plan  from  leading  statesmen  in  England,  in 
Germany,  in  France,  in  Russia,  that  it  would 
seem  impossible  that  with  the  right  proce- 
dure it  cannot  now  be  brought  into  operation. 
The  divine  right  of  kings  has  gone.  It  holds 
no  more.  We  hear  now  and  then,  it  is  true, 
some  silly  statement  in  regard  to  it,  but  little 
attention  is  paid  to  it.  The  divine  right  of 
priests  has  gone  except  in  the  minds  of  the 
few  remaining  ignorant  and  herdable  ones. 
The  divine  right  of  dynasties — or  rather  of 
dynasties  to  persist — seems  to  die  a  little 
harder,  but  it  is  on  the  way.  We  are  now 
realising  that  the  only  divine  right  is  the  right 
of  the  people — and  all  the  people. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    219 

Never  again  should  it  be  possible  for  one 
man,  or  for  one  little  group  of  men  so  to  lead, 
or  so  to  mislead  a  nation  as  to  plunge  it  into 
war.  The  growth  of  democracy  compelling 
the  greater  participation  of  all  the  people  in 
government  must  prohibit  this.  So  likewise 
the  close  relationship  of  the  entire  world  now 
should  make  it  forever  impossible  for  a  single 
nation  or  group  of  nations  for  any  cause  to 
plunge  a  whole  world  or  any  part  of  it  into 
war.  These  are  sound  and  clear-visioned 
words  recently  given  utterance  to  by  James 
Bryce :  "  However  much  we  condemn  reckless 
leaders  and  the  ruthless  caste  that  live  for 
war,  the  real  source  of  the  mischief  is  the 
popular  sentiment  behind  them.  The  lesson 
to  be  learned  is  that  doctrines  and  deep-rooted 
passions,  whence  these  evils  spring,  can  only 
be  removed  by  the  slow  and  steady  working 
of  spiritual  forces.  What  most  is  needed  is 
the  elimination  of  those  feelings  the  teach- 
ings of  which  breed  jealousy  and  hatred 
and  prompt  men  to  defiance  and  aggres- 
sion." 

Humanity  and  civilisation  is  not  headed 
towards  Ab  the  cave-man,  whatever  appear- 
ances, in  the  minds  of  many,  may  indicate  at 
the  present  time.  Humanity  will  arise  and 
will  reconstruct  itself.  Great  lessons  will  be 
learned.  Good  will  result.  But  what  a  ter- 


220    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

rific  price  to  pay!  What  a  terrific  price  to 
pay  to  learn  the  lesson  that  "  moral  forces  are 
the  only  invincible  forces  in  the  universe"! 
It  has  been  slow,  but  steadily  the  world  is  ad- 
vancing to  that  stage  when  the  individual  or 
the  nation  that  does  not  know  that  the  law 
of  mutuality,  of  cooperation,  and  still  more 
the  law  of  sympathy  and  good  will,  is  the 
supreme  law  in  real  civilisation,  real  advance- 
ment, and  real  gain — who  does  not  know  that 
its  own  welfare  is  always  bound  up  with  the 
welfare  of  the  greater  whole — is  still  in  the 
brute  stage  of  life  and  the  bestial  propensities 
are  still  its  guiding  forces. 

Prejudice,  suspicion,  hatred,  national  big- 
headedness,  must  give  way  to  respect,  sym- 
pathy, the  desire  for  mutual  understanding 
and  cooperation.  The  higher  attributes  must 
and  will  assert  themselves.  The  former  are 
the  ways  of  periodic  if  not  continuous  de- 
struction— the  latter  are  the  ways  of  the 
higher  spiritual  forces  that  must  prevail. 
Significant  are  these  words  of  one  of  our 
younger  but  clear-visioned  American  poets, 
Winter  Dinner: 

Whether  the  time  be  slow  or  fast, 

Enemies,  hand  in  hand, 
Must  come  together  at  the  last 

And  understand. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    221 

No  matter  how  the  die  is  cast, 
Or  who  may  seem  to  win — 

We  know  that  we  must  love  at  last — 
Why  not  begin?' 

The  teaching  of  hatred  to  children,  the 
fostering  of  hatred  in  adults,  can  result  only 
in  harm  to  the  people  and  the  nation  where 
it  is  fostered.  The  dragon's  tooth  will  leave 
its  marks  upon  the  entire  nation  and  the  fair 
life  of  all  the  people  will  suffer  by  it.  The 
holding  in  contempt  of  other  people  makes  it 
sometimes  necessary  that  one's  own  head  be 
battered  against  the  wall  that  he  may  be  suffi- 
ciently aroused  to  recognise  and  to  appreciate 
their  sterling  and  enduring  qualities. 

The  use  of  a  club  is  more  spectacular  for 
some  at  least  than  the  use  of  intellectual  and 
moral  forces.  The  rattling  of  the  machine-gun 
produces  more  commotion  than  the  more 
quiet  ways  of  peace.  All  of  the  powerful 
forces  in  nature,  those  of  growth,  germination, 
and  conservation,  the  same  as  in  human  life 
are  quiet  forces.  So  in  the  preservation  of 
peace.  It  consists  rather  in  a  high  construc- 
tive policy.  It  requires  always  clear  vision, 
a  constantly  progressive  and  cooperative 
method  of  life  and  action;  frank  and  open 
dealing  and  a  resolute  purpose.  It  is  won  and 
maintained  by  nothing  so  much  in  the  long 


222    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

run  as  when  it  makes  the  Golden  Rule  its  law 
of  conduct.  Slowly  we  are  realising  that  great 
armaments — militarism — do  not  insure  peace. 
They  may  lead  away  from  it — they  are  very 
apt  to  lead  away  from  it. 

Peace  is  related  rather  to  the  great  moral 
laws  of  conduct.  It  has  to  do  with  straight, 
clean,  open  dealing.  It  is  fostered  by  sym- 
pathy, forbearance.  This  does  not  mean  that 
it  pertains  to  weakness.  On  the  contrary  it  is 
determined  by  resolute  but  high  purpose,  the 
actual  and  active  desire  of  a  nation  to  live  on 
terms  of  peace  with  all  other  nations ;  and  the 
world's  recognition  of  this  fact  is  a  most 
powerful  factor  in  inducing  and  in  actualising 
such  living. 

Our  own  achievement  of  upwards  of  a  hun- 
dred years  in  living  in  peaceable,  sympathetic 
and  mutually  beneficial  relations  with  Canada ; 
Canada's  achievement  in  so  living  with  us, 
should  be  a  distinct  and  clear-cut  answer  to 
the  argument  that  nations  need  to  fortify  their 
boundaries  one  against  another.  This  is  true 
only  where  suspicion,  mistrust,  fear,  secret 
diplomacy,  and  secret  alliances  hold  instead  of 
the  great  and  eternally  constructive  forces — 
sympathy,  good  will,  mutual  understanding,  in- 
duced and  conserved  by  an  International  Joint 
Commission  of  able  men  whose  business  it  is 
to  investigate,  to  determine,  and  to  adjust  any 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    223 

differences  that  through  the  years  may  arise. 
Here  we  have  a  boundary  line  of  upwards  of 
three  thousand  miles  and  not  a  fort;  vast 
areas  of  inland  seas  and  not  a  war  vessel ;  and 
for  upwards  of  a  hundred  years  not  a  differ- 
ence that  the  High  Joint  Commission  has  not 
been  able  to  settle  amicably  and  to  the  mutual 
advantage  of  both  countries. 

I  know  that  in  connection  with  this  we  have 
an  advantage  over  the  old-world  nations  be- 
cause we  are  free  from  age-long  prejudices, 
hatreds,  and  past  scores.  But  if  this  great 
conflict  does  not  lead  along  the  lines  of  the 
constructive  forces  and  the  working  out  of  a 
new  world  method,  then  the  future  of  Europe 
and  of  the  world  is  dark  indeed.  Surely  it 
will  lead  to  a  new  order — it  is  almost  incon- 
ceivable that  it  will  not. 

The  Golden  Rule  is  a  wonderful  developer 
in  human  life,  a  wonderful  harmoniser  in  com- 
munity life — with  great  profit  it  could  be  ex- 
tended as  the  law  of  conduct  in  international 
relations.  It  must  be  so  extended.  Its  very 
foundation  is  sympathy,  good  will,  mutuality, 
love. 

The  very  essence  of  Jesus'  entire  revelation 
and  teaching  was  love.  It  was  not  the  teach- 
ing of  weakness  or  supineness  in  the  face  of 
wrong,  however.  There  was  no  failure  on  his 
part  to  smite  wrong  when  he  saw  it — wrong 


224    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

taking  the  form  of  injustice  or  oppression. 
He  had,  as  we  have  seen,  infinite  sympathy  for 
and  forbearance  with  the  weak,  the  sinful; 
but  he  had  always  a  righteous  indignation 
and  a  scathing  denunciation  for  oppression — 
for  that  spirit  of  hell  that  prompts  men  or 
organisations  to  seek,  to  study  to  dominate 
the  minds  and  thereby  the  lives  of  others.  It 
was,  moreover,  that  he  would  not  keep  silent 
regarding  the  deadly  ecclesiasticism  that  bore 
so  heavily  upon  his  people  and  that  had  well- 
nigh  crushed  all  their  religious  life  whence 
are  the  very  springs  of  life,  that  he  aroused 
the  deadly  antagonism  of  the  ruling  hierarchy. 
And  as  he,  witnessing  for  truth  and  freedom, 
steadfastly  and  defiantly  opposed  oppression, 
so  those  who  catch  his  spirit  today  will  do 
as  he  did  and  will  realise  as  duty — "  While 
wrong  is  wrong  let  no  man  prate  of  peace !  " 

Peace?    Peace?    Peace? 
While  wrong  is  wrong  let  no  man  prate  of 

peace ! 
He  did  not  prate,  the  Master.    Nay,  he  smote ! 

Hate  wrong!     Slay  wrong!    Else  mercy,  jus- 
tice, truth, 
Freedom  and  faith,  shall  die  for  humankind.* 

*  From  that  strong,  splendid  poem,  "  Buttadeus," 
by  William  Samuel  Johnson. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    225 

Nor  did  the  code  and  teachings  of  Jesus 
prevent  him  driving  the  money-changers  from 
out  the  temple  court.  It  was  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  doing  them  harm.  It  was  rather  to  do 
them  good  by  driving  home  to  them  in  some 
tangible  and  concrete  form,  through  the  skin 
and  flesh  of  their  bodies,  what  the  thick  skins 
of  their  moral  natures  were  unable  to  compre- 
hend. The  resistance  of  wrongdoing  is  not 
opposed  to  the  law  of  love.  As  in  community 
life  there  is  the  occasional  bully  who  has 
sometimes  to  be  knocked  down  in  order  that 
he  may  have  a  due  appreciation  of  individual 
rights  and  community  amenities,  so  among 
nations  a  similar  lesson  is  sometimes  neces- 
sary in  order  that  it  or  its  leaders  may  learn 
that  there  are  certain  things  that  do  not  pay, 
and,  moreover,  will  not  be  allowed  by  the  com- 
munity of  nations. 

Making  might  alone  the  basis  of  national 
policy  and  action,  or  making  it  the  basis  of 
settlement  in  international  settlements,  but 
arouses  and  intensifies  hatred  and  the  spirit 
of  revenge.  So  in  connection  with  this  great 
world  crisis — after  it  all  then  comes  the  great 
problem  of  reorganisation  and  rehabilitation, 
and  unless  there  comes  about  an  international 
concord  strong  and  definite  enough  to  prevent 
a  recurrence  of  what  has  been,  it  would  almost 
seem  that  restoration  were  futile;  for  things 


226    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

will  be  restored  only  in  time  to  be  destroyed 
again. 

No  amount  of  armament  we  know  now  will 
prevent  war.  It  can  be  prevented  only  by  a 
definite  concord  of  the  nations  brought  finally 
to  realise  the  futility  of  war.  To  deny  the 
possibility  of  a  World  Federation  and  a  World 
Court  is  to  deny  the  ability  of  men  to  govern 
themselves.  The  history  of  the  American  Re- 
public in  its  demonstration  of  the  power  and 
the  genius  of  federation  should  disprove  the 
truth  of  this.  Here  we  have  a  nation  com- 
posed of  forty-eight  sovereign  states  and  with 
the  most  heterogeneous  accumulation  of  peo- 
ple that  ever  came  together  in  one  country,  let 
alone  one  nation,  and  great  numbers  of  them 
from  those  nations  that  for  upwards  of  a  thou- 
sand years  have  been  periodically  springing 
at  one  another's  throats.  Enlightened  self- 
government  has  done  it.  The  real  spirit  and 
temper  of  democracy  has  done  it.  But  it  must 
be  the  preservation  of  the  real  spirit  of  de- 
mocracy and  constant  vigilance  that  must 
preserve  it. 

Our  period  of  isolation  is  over.  We  have 
become  a  world-nation.  Equality  of  rights 
presupposes  equality  of  duty.  In  our  very 
souls  we  loathe  militarism.  Conquest  and 
aggression  are  foreign  to  our  spirit,  and  for- 
eign to  our  thoughts  and  ambitions.  But 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    227 

weakness  will  by  no  means  assure  us  immunity 
from  aggression  from  without.  Universal 
military  trainmg  up  to  a  reasonable  point,  and 
the  joint  sense  of  responsibility  of  every  man 
and  every  woman  in  the  nation,  and  the  right 
of  the  national  government  to  expect  and  to 
demand  that  every  man  and  woman  stand 
ready  to  respond  to  the  call  to  service, 
whatever  form  it  may  take — this  is  our 
armour. 

All  intelligent  people  know  that  the  national 
government  has  always  had  the  power  to  draft 
every  male  citizen  fit  for  service  into  military 
service.  It  is  not  therefore  a  question  of  uni- 
versal military  service.  The  real  and  only 
question  is  whether  these  or  great  numbers  of 
these  go  out  illy  prepared  and  equipped  as 
sheep  to  the  shambles  perchance,  or  whether 
they  go  out  trained  and  equipped  to  do  a  man's 
work — more  adequately  prepared  to  protect 
themselves  as  well  as  the  integrity  of  the 
nation.  It  is  not  to  be  done  for  the  love  or 
the  purpose  of  militarism ;  but  recognising  the 
fact  that  militarism  still  persists,  that  with  us 
it  may  not  be  triumphant  should  we  at  any 
time  be  forced  to  face  it.  There  are  certain 
facts  that  only  to  our  peril  as  well  as  our 
moral  degradation,  we  can  be  blind  to.  Said 
a  noted  historian  but  a  few  days  ago: 


228    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

"  I  loathe  war  and  militarism.  I  have  fought 
them  for  twenty  years.  But  I  am  a  historian, 
and  I  know  that  bullies  thrive  best  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  meekness.  As  long  as  this  mili- 
tary system  lasts  you  must  discourage  the 
mailed  fist  by  showing  that  you  will  meet  it 
with  something  harder  than  a  boxing  glove. 
We  do  not  think  it  good  to  admit  into  the  code 
of  the  twentieth  century  that  a  great  national 
bully  may  still  with  impunity  squeeze  the 
blood  out  of  its  small  neighbours  and  seize 
their  goods." 

We  need  not  fear  militarism  arising  in 
America  as  long  as  the  fundamental  principles 
of  democracy  are  preserved  and  continually 
extended,  which  can  be  done  only  through  the 
feeling  of  the  individual  responsibility  of  every 
man  and  every  woman  to  take  a  keen  and  con- 
stant interest  in  the  matters  of  their  own  gov- 
ernment— community,  state,  national,  and  now 
international.  We  must  realise  and  ever  more 
fully  realise  that  in  a  government  such  as  ours, 
the  people  are  the  government,  and  that  when 
in  it  anything  goes  wrong,  or  wrongs  and  in- 
justices are  allowed  to  grow  and  hold  sway, 
we  are  to  blame. 

Universal  military  training  has  not  mili- 
tarised Switzerland  nor  has  it  Australia.  It 
is  rather  the  very  essence  of  democracy  and 
the  very  antithesis  of  militarism. 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    MQ 

"  Let  each  son  of  Freedom  bear 
His  portion  of  the  burden.    Should  not  each 

one  do  his  share? 
To  sacrifice  the  splendid  few — 
The  strong  of  heart,  the  brave,  the  true, 
Who  live— or  die — as  heroes  do, 
While  cowards  profit — is  not  fair !  " 

Many  still  recall  that  not  a  few  well-mean- 
ing people  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  pro- 
claimed that,  with  upwards  of  two  million 
trained  men  behind  him,  General  Grant  would 
become  a  military  dictator,  and  that  this  would 
be  followed  by  the  disappearance  of  democ- 
racy in  the  nation.  But  the  mind,  the  temper, 
the  traditions  of  our  people  are  all  a  guaran- 
tee against  militarism.  The  gospel,  the  hal- 
lucination of  the  shining  armour,  the  will  to 
power,  has  no  attraction  for  us.  We  loathe 
it;  nor  do  we  fear  its  undermining  and  crush- 
ing our  own  liberties  internally.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  true  that  vigilance  is  always  and  always 
will  be  the  price  of  liberty.  There  must  be  a 
constant  education  towards  citizenship.  There 
must  be  an  alert  democracy,  so  that  any  land 
and  sea  force  is  always  the  servant  of  the 
spirit;  for  only  otherwise  it  can  become  its 
master — but  otherwise  it  will  become  its 
master. 

Prejudice,  suspicion,  hatred  on  the  part  of 


230    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

individuals  or  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  one 
nation  against  the  people  of  another  nation, 
have  never  yet  advanced  the  welfare  of  any 
individual  or  any  nation  and  never  can.  The 
world  war  is  but  the  direct  result  of  the  type 
of  peace  that  preceded  it.  The  militarist  argu- 
ment reduced  to  its  lowest  terms  amounts 
merely  to  this :  "  For  two  nations  to  keep 
peace  each  must  be  stronger  than  the  other." 
The  real  hope  of  preserving  amicable  relations, 
and,  therefore,  of  maintaining  a  permanent 
peace,  lies  not  in  this  direction;  nor  in  the 
direction  of  making  war  physically  impossible ; 
but  rather  in  making  it  spiritually  impossible. 
The  open  expression  and  the  systematised 
efforts  of  public  opinion  is  the  only  thing  that 
will  effectually  hasten  the  moment  when  a 
decisive  move  is  made  for  culminating  the 
new  order  of  world  relations,  including  the 
orderly  procedure  in  the  examination  and  the 
settling  of  international  disputes  or  differ- 
ences. 

Representative  men  of  other  countries  do 
not  resent  our  part  in  pressing  this  matter  and 
in  taking  the  leadership  in  it.  But  even  if  they 
did  they  would  have  no  just  right  to.  There 
is,  however,  a  very  general  feeling  that  the 
American  Republic,  as  the  world's  greatest 
example  of  successful  federation,  should  take 
the  lead  in  the  World  Federation,  and  espe- 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    231 

cially  at  this  time  when  their  own  hands  are 
so  full  and  are  virtually  tied.  The  following 
words  by  James  Bryce,  spoken  some  time  ago, 
are  but  representative  of  a  very  general  con- 
sensus of  opinion  abroad  in  this  regard: 

"  The  creation  of  some  international  alliance 
embracing  all  peace-loving  nations  could 
hardly  succeed  without  the  cooperation  of  the 
greatest  of  all  neutral  nations.  With  that  co- 
operation, difficult  as  the  effort  to  construct 
such  a  scheme  will  be,  there  is  at  least  a  real 
hope  of  success.  Largely  in  vain  will  this  war 
have  been  fought  and  all  these  sufferings  en- 
dured if  the  peoples  of  the  world  are  to  fall 
back  into  a  state  of  permanent  alarm,  sus- 
picion; and  the  hospitality  of  each  would  be 
weighed  down  by  the  frightful  burden  of  ar- 
maments. Let  us  hope  that  the  proffered  help 
of  America  will  encourage  the  statesmen  of 
Europe  and  draw  from  them  a  responsive 
note."  And  again :  "  The  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  creating  such  a  league  are  many  and 
obvious,  but  whatever  else  may  come  out  of 
the  war,  we  in  England  hope  that  one  result 
of  it  will  be  the  creation  of  some  machinery 
calculated  to  avert  the  recurrence  of  so  awful 
a  calamity  as  that  from  which  mankind  is  now 
suffering." 


232    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

And  a  few  days  later,  speaking  of  a  World 
League  to  secure  future  peace,  the  Secretary 
of  Foreign  Affairs  of  one  of  the  great  nations 
at  war  said: 

"  I  believe  the  best  work  neutrals  can  do 
for  the  moment  is  to  try  to  prevent  a  war  like 
this  from  happening  again.  It  is  a  work  of 
neutral  countries  to  which  we  should  all  look 
with  favour  and  hope.  Only,  we*  must  bear 
this  in  mind:  if  the  nations  after  the  war  are 
able  to  do  something  effective  by  binding 
themselves  with  the  common  object  of  pre- 
serving peace,  they  must  be  prepared  to  under- 
take no  more  than  they  are  able  to  uphold  by 
force,  and  to  see,  when  the  time  of  crisis 
comes,  that  it  is  upheld  by  force.  The  ques- 
tion we  must  ask  them  is :  '  Will  you  play  up 
when  the  time  comes?'  It  is  not  merely  the 
sign-manual  of  Presidents  and  sovereigns  that 
is  really  to  make  that  worth  while;  it  must 
also  have  behind  it  Parliaments  and  national 
sentiments." 

A  well-known  German  authority  on  Inter- 
national Law  and  representative  also  of  the 
German  government  at  The  Hague  Conference, 
Professor  Philip  Zorn,  in  a  notable  article  in 
"  Der  Tag  "  some  time  ago,  spoke  of  his  readi- 
ness to  accept  an  ending  of  the  war  by  an 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    233 

international  conference  and  settlement  that 
would  insure  the  prevention  of  future  wars, 
and  added :  "  The  problem  of  resolving  all 
quarrels  through  the  arbitration  method 
offers,  it  is  true,  great  difficulties,  but  not  in- 
surmountable ones." 

This  is  now  going  to  be  greatly  fostered  by 
virtue  of  one  great  good  that  the  world  war 
will  eventually  have  accomplished — the  doom 
and  the  end  of  autocracy.  Dynasties  and  privi- 
leged orders  that  have  lived  and  lived  alone  on 
militarism,  will  have  been  foreclosed  on.  The 
people  in  control,  in  an  increasingly  intelligent 
control  of  their  own  lives  and  their  own  gov- 
ernments, will  be  governed  by  a  higher  degree 
of  self-enlightenment  and  mutual  self-interest 
than  under  the  domination  or  even  the  leader- 
ship of  any  type  of  hereditary  ruling  class  or 
war-lord.  In  some  countries  autocracy  in  re- 
ligion, through  the  free  mingling  and  discus- 
sions of  men  of  various  nationalities  and  re- 
ligious persuasions,  will  be  again  lessened, 
whereby  the  direct  love  and  power  of  God  in 
the  hearts  of  men,  as  Jesus  taught,  will  have 
a  fuller  sway  and  a  more  holy  and  a  diviner 
moulding  power  in  their  lives. 

It  was  during  those  long,  weary  years 
coupled  with  the  horrible  crimes  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  that  the  science  of  International 
Law  began  to  take  form,  the  result  of  that 


234    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

notable  work,  "  De  Jure  Belli  ac  Pads,"  by 
Grotius.  It  is  ours  to  see  that  out  of  this 
more  intense  and  thereby  even  more  horrible 
conflict  a  new  epoch  in  human  and  inter- 
national relations  be  born. 

As  the  higher  powers  of  mind  and  spirit  are 
realised  and  used,  great  primal  instincts  im- 
pelling men  to  expression  and  action  that  find 
their  outlet  many  times  in  war,  will  be  trans- 
muted and  turned  from  destruction  into  power- 
ful engines  of  construction.  When  a  moral 
equivalent  for  war  of  sufficient  impelling 
power  is  placed  before  men,  those  same  virile 
qualities  and  powers  that  are  now  marshalled 
so  easily  for  purposes  of  fighting,  will,  under 
the  guidance  and  in  the  service  of  the  spirit, 
be  used  for  the  conserving  of  human  life,  and 
for  the  advancement  and  the  increase  of  every- 
thing that  administers  to  life,  that  makes  it 
more  abundant,  more  mutual,  and  more  happy. 
And  God  knows  that  the  call  for  such  service 
is  very  great. 

Our  time  needs  again  more  the  prophet  and 
less  the  priest.  It  needs  the  God-impelled  life 
and  voice  of  the  prophet  with  his  face  to  the 
future,  both  God-ward  and  man-ward,  burn- 
ing with  an  undivided  devotion  to  truth  and 
righteousness.  It  needs  less  the  priest,  too 
often  with  his  back  to  the  future  and  too  often 
the  pliant  tool  of  the  organisation  whose 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    235 

chief  concern  is,  and  ever  has  been,  the  preser- 
vation of  itself  under  the  ostensible  purpose 
of  the  preservation  of  the  truth  once  delivered, 
the  same  that  Jesus  with  his  keen  powers  of 
penetration  saw  killed  the  Spirit  as  a  high 
moral  guide  and  as  an  inspirer  to  high  and 
unself-centred  endeavour,  and  that  he  char- 
acterised with  such  scathing  scorn.  There  are 
splendid  exceptions;  but  this  is  the  rule  now 
even  as  it  was  in  his  day. 

The  prophet  is  concerned  with  truth,  not 
a  system;  with  righteousness,  not  custom; 
with  justice,  not  expediency.  Is  there  a  man 
who  would  dare  say  that  if  Christianity — the 
Christianity  of  the  Christ — had  been  actually 
in  vogue,  in  practice  in  all  the  countries  of 
Christendom  during  the  last  fifty  years,  dur- 
ing the  last  twenty-five  years,  that  this  colos- 
sal and  gruesome  war  would  ever  have  come 
about?  No  clear-thinking  and  honest  man 
would  or  could  say  that  it  would.  We  need 
again  the  voice  of  the  prophet,  clear-seeing, 
high-purposed,  and  unafraid.  We  need  again 
the  touch  of  the  prophet's  hand  to  lead  us 
back  to  those  simple  fundamental  teachings 
of  the  Christ  of  Nazareth,  that  are  life-giving 
to  the  individual,  and  that  are  world-saving. 

We  speak  of  our  Christian  civilisation,  and 
the  common  man,  especially  in  times  like 
these,  asks  what  it  is,  where  it  is — and  God 


236    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

knows  that  we  have  been  for  many  hundred 
years  wandering  in  the  wilderness.  He  is 
thinking  that  that  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth 
that  the  true  teachings  of  Jesus  predicated,  and 
that  he  laboured  so  hard  to  actualise,  needs 
some  speeding  up.  There  is  a  world-wide 
yearning  for  spiritual  peace  and  righteousness 
on  the  part  of  the  common  man.  He  is  finding 
it  occasionally  in  established  religion,  but 
often,  perhaps  more  often,  independently  of 
it.  He  is  finding  it  more  often  through  his 
own  contact  and  relations  with  the  Man  of 
Nazareth — for  him  the  God-man.  There  is  no 
greater  fact  in  our  time,  and  there  is  no  greater 
hope  for  the  future  than  is  to  be  found  in  this 
fact. 

We  need  a  stock-taking  and  a  mobilisation 
of  our  spiritual  forces.  But  what,  after  all, 
does  this  mean?  Search  as  we  may  we  are 
brought  back  every  time  to  this  same  Man  of 
Nazareth,  the  God-man — Son  of  Man  and  Son 
of  God.  And  gathering  it  into  a  few  brief  sen- 
tences it  is  this:  Jesus'  great  revelation  was 
this  consciousness  of  God  in  the  individual 
life,  and  to  this  he  witnessed  in  a  supreme  and 
masterly  way,  because  this  he  supremely  real- 
ised and  lived.  Faith  in  him  and  following 
him  does  not  mean  acquiring  some  particular 
notion  of  God  or  some  particular  belief  about 
him  himself.  It  is  the  living  in  one's  own  life 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    237 

of  this  same  consciousness  of  God  as  one's 
source  and  Father,  and  a  living  in  these  same 
filial  relations  with  him  of  love  and  guidance 
and  care  that  Jesus  entered  into  and  con- 
tinuously lived. 

When  this  is  done  there  is  no  problem  and 
no  condition  in  the  individual  life  that  it  will 
not  clarify,  mould,  and  therefore  take  care  of; 
for  "fjirj  fj.spifj.vaTe  rrj  fyvx?f  v).icav  "— do  not 
worry  about  your  life — was  the  Master's  clear- 
cut  command.  Are  we  ready  for  this  high 
type  of  spiritual  adventure?  Not  only  are  we 
assured  of  this  great  and  mighty  truth  that 
the  Master  revealed  and  going  ahead  of  us 
lived,  that  under  this  supreme  guidance  we 
need  not  worry  about  the  things  of  the  life, 
but  that  under  this  Divine  guidance  we  need 
not  think  even  of  the  life  itself,  if  for  any 
reason  it  becomes  our  duty  or  our  privi- 
lege to  lay  it  down.  Witnessing  for  truth  and 
standing  for  truth  he  again.preceded  us  in  this. 

But  this,  this  love  for  God  or  rather  this 
state  that  becomes  the  natural  and  the  normal 
life  when  we  seek  the  Kingdom,  and  the  Divine 
rule  becomes  dominant  and  operative  in  mind 
and  heart,  leads  us  directly  back  to  his  other 
fundamental:  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself.  For  if  God  is  my  Father  and  if  he 
cares  for  me  in  this  way — and  every  other  man 
in  the  world  is  my  brother  and  He  cares  for 


238    HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT 

him  in  exactly  the  same  way — then  by  the 
sanction  of  God  his  Father  I  haven't  anything 
on  my  brother;  and  by  the  love  of  God  my 
Father  my  brother  hasn't  anything  on  me.  It 
is  but  the  most  rudimentary  commonsense 
then,  that  we  be  considerate  one  of  another, 
that  we  be  square  and  decent  one  with  an- 
other. We  will  do  well  as  children  of  the 
same  Father  to  sit  down  and  talk  matters  over ; 
and  arise  with  the  conclusion  that  the  advice 
of  Jesus,  our  elder  brother,  is  sound :  "  There- 
fore all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them." 

He  gave  it  no  label,  but  it  has  subsequently 
become  known  as  the  Golden  Rule.  There  is 
no  higher  rule  and  no  greater  developer  of  the 
highest  there  is  in  the  individual  human  life, 
and  no  greater  adjuster  and  beautifier  of  the 
problems  of  our  common  human  life.  And 
when  it  becomes  sufficiently  strong  in  its  ac- 
tion in  this,  the  world  awaits  its  projection 
into  its  international  life.  This  is  the  truth 
that  he  revealed — the  twofold  truth  of  love  to 
God  and  love  for  the  neighbour,  that  shall  make 
men  free.  The  truth  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth 
still  holds  and  shall  hold,  and  we  must  realise 
this  adequately  before  we  ask  or  can  expect 
any  other  revelation. 

We  are  in  a  time  of  great  changes.  The 
discovery  of  new  laws  and  therefore  of  new 


HIGHER  POWERS  OF  MIND  AND  SPIRIT    239 

truth  necessitates  changes  and  necessitates 
advances.  But  whatever  changes  or  advances 
may  come,  the  Divine  reality  still  survives,  in- 
dependent of  Jesus  it  is  true,  but  as  the  world 
knows  him  still  better,  it  will  give  to  him  its 
supreme  gratitude  and  praise,  in  that  he  was 
the  most  perfect  revealer  of  God  to  man,  of 
God  in  man,  and  the  most  concrete  in  that  he 
embodied  and  lived  this  truth  in  his  own 
matchless  human-divine  life ;  and  stands  as  the 
God-man  to  which  the  world  is  gradually  ap- 
proaching. For  as  Goethe  has  said — "  We  can 
never  get  beyond  the  spirit  of  Jesus." 

Do  you  know  that  incident  in  connection 
with  the  little  Scottish  girl?  She  was  trudg- 
ing along,  carrying  as  best  she  could  a  boy 
younger,  but  it  seemed  almost  as  big  as  she 
herself,  when  one  remarked  to  her  how  heavy 
he  must  be  for  her  to  carry,  when  instantly 
came  the  reply :  "  He's  na  heavy.  He's  mi 
brither."  Simple  is  the  incident;  but  there  is 
in  it  a  truth  so  fundamental  that  pondering 
upon  it,  it  is  enough  to  make  many  a  man,  to 
whom  dogma  or  creed  make  no  appeal,  a 
Christian — and  a  mighty  engine  for  good  in 
the  world.  And  more — there  is  in  it  a  truth 
so  fundamental  and  so  fraught  with  potency 
and  with  power,  that  its  wider  recognition  and 
projection  into  all  human  relations  would  re- 
construct a  world. 


/ sa<a)  the  mountains  stand 
Silent,  'wonderful,  and  grand, 
Looking  out  across  the  land 
When  the  golden  light  was  falling 
On  distant  dome  and  spire  ; 
And  I  heard  a  low  voice  calling, 
"  Come  up  higher,  come  up  higher. 
From  the  lowland  and  the  mire, 
From  the  mist  of  earth  desire, 
From  the  vain  pussvit  of  pelf, 
From  the  attitude  of  self: 
Come  up  higher,  c^me  up  higher. ' 
—James  G.  Clarke 


341 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


PISCIIARGF-URL 

,  "JUN 1 3  197S" 

JUL  2  7  197S 

INTERL.  .   LO^NS 

19Bb 

iceipf 


DueTw 


RH'Oata  uf  R 


OCT291985 
SEP  2  2 1986 


24139 


ARY 

UlVi\  «i 


3  1158  00477  6513 


A     000  096  271     2 


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I  i  8 


